Storm bury Colts to gain ground

Thursday night, the Storm travelled to Barrie to square off against the Colts and came out on top in a 5-4 victory.  The line of Taylor Beck, Peter Holland and Daniel Erlich combined for eight points in the first period and spotted the visitors one goal lead after twenty that they would never relinquish.

Guelph jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a nice Erlich feed to CHL Player of the Week Taylor Beck at the side of the net.  After killing off 66 seconds of five-on-three, the Storm found themselves two men down again only 18 seconds after Francis Menard came out of the box.  Back on a two-man advantage again, the Colts wouldn’t fail to convert a second time Tanner Pearson banged a rebound past Brandon Foote to even the game at one.  Barrie would grab their first lead of the night on a long point shot with only 93 seconds remaining in the first. Two markers in 45 seconds by the Beck-Holland-Erlich line restored the one goal bulge heading into the first intermission.

The 3-2 lead stuck until Guelph’s Cody McNaughton one-timed a nice backhand cross-crease pass by Zack Mitchell on the powerplay at 17:48.  Francis Menard became the fifth different Storm goal scorer on the night at 3:42 of the third to hand the Storm their first three goal lead of the evening.  What looked like an insurance strike by Menard, turned out to be the winning goal after the Colts scored two times over a five minute span near the midway mark of the final stanza.  Late in the game with the goalie pulled in favour of an extra attacker, Guelph would go down a pair to make it a six-on-four for the final 48 seconds.  Brandon Foote made a handful of saves and the Storm penalty kill did the rest to hang on for the one goal win.

With the win, the Storm pull just two points behind 7th place London with a game in hand and three points back of the Erie Otters.  Tomorrow night at the Sleeman Centre, Guelph will have a chance to cut into the Otters’ cushion as they go for their ninth straight win on home in a critical meeting against Erie at 7:30 pm.

Official statistics powered by LeagueStat.comGuelph Storm 5 at Barrie Colts 4 – Status: Final
Thursday, March 3, 2011 – Barrie Molson Centre

Guelph 3 1 1 – 5
Barrie 2 0 2 – 4

1st Period-1, Guelph, Beck 39 (Erlich), 3:44. 2, Barrie, Pearson 14 (Ashman, Behenna), 8:41 (PP). 3, Barrie, Buonomo 1 (Pearson, Beranek), 18:27. 4, Guelph, Holland 34 (Erlich, Beck), 18:46. 5, Guelph, Erlich 18 (Holland, Beck), 19:31. Penalties-Holland Gue (tripping), 1:20; Menard Gue (hooking), 6:13; Gaskin Gue (delay of game), 7:07; Pereira Gue (hooking), 8:31; Nixon Bar (delay of game), 14:53.

2nd Period-6, Guelph, McNaughton 13 (Mitchell, Latta), 17:48 (PP). Penalties-Pereira Gue (tripping), 6:41; Lepkowski Bar (slashing), 9:57; Van Laren Gue (tripping), 14:10; Devlin Bar (interference), 16:31; Gaskin Gue (tripping), 19:12.

3rd Period-7, Guelph, Menard 11 (McGinn, Kosmachuk), 3:42. 8, Barrie, Beranek 8 (Pearson, Buonomo), 8:35. 9, Barrie, Scheifele 17 (Behenna, Locke), 12:53 (PP). Penalties-Mort Bar (hooking), 5:33; Sonnenburg Gue (holding), 12:28; Holland Gue (roughing), 17:37; Buonomo Bar (roughing), 17:37; Latta Gue (tripping), 19:12.

Shots on Goal-Guelph 12-14-10-36. Barrie 12-8-16-36.
Power Play Opportunities-Guelph 1 / 4; Barrie 2 / 9.
Goalies-Guelph, Foote 21-18-4-1 (36 shots-32 saves). Barrie, Windsor 2-18-0-2 (12 shots-9 saves); Chartrand 13-12-1-0 (24 shots-22 saves).
A-3,036
Referees-Joe Celestin (4), David Gauthier (28).
Linesmen-Kevin Hastings (61), Chris Thornton (89).