Rookie leads the charge in Storm victory
In a hockey game full of stars, it was an unheralded rookie that rose to the occasion to make the difference Tuesday night at the Sleeman Centre.
James McEwan, a two-goal scorer coming into the game who battles for ice time on a nightly basis, scored the tying goal midway through the third period then set up Chris Marchese’s winner with 2:25 left in regulation as the Storm downed the Kitchener Rangers 3-2.
That means Guelph needs one more point from its final two games to clinch fourth place in the Western Conference and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, which would be against either the Rangers or Owen Sound Attack.
The Attack is the only team that can catch Guelph and would have to win its last three games (against Plymouth, Guelph and Sarnia) and have the Storm lose its final two games (at home against Owen Sound and Sarnia) to catch them.
“I was looking for somebody and we found him,” Storm coach Bill Stewart said of McEwan’s heroics.
“It was nice to see some of our foot soldiers contribute the way they did,” Stewart said. “Good for James. It’s been a long season for him, he’s been injured a lot and it was nice to see.”
The winning goal came when McEwan made a nice move at the Ranger blue line to evade a defenceman and go in on a two-on-one with Marchese. McEwan quickly slid it over to Marchese who rifled home a perfectly-timed one-timer past goaltender Jake Paterson.
“It was a pretty important goal, obviously. We knew it was going to happen and I’m glad I led the charge,” McEwan said. “We always need secondary scoring and I was glad I could provide that.”
His tying goal came after some great hustle by linemate Ryan Foss, who earned a loose puck with hustle then threw it at the Kitchener net, where McEwan tipped it between Paterson’s pads.
