Storm’s late comeback falls short against Rangers
By Tony Saxon, Guelph Mercury
Scott Walker wasn’t about to kick his players while they were down Tuesday night at Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
The Guelph Storm coach took the group hug approach when discussing a 6-4 loss to the Kitchener Rangers in the latest installment of “Biggest Game of the Year.”
“All I know is that if we had won the game we weren’t getting the trophy and if we lose the game weren’t going home,” Walker said of the loss.
“It’s an important game and I was disappointed we weren’t ready for it, but everybody called it the biggest game of the year but I’ve been saying that about games since before Christmas.”
With the loss Guelph blew a chance to move one point back of Kitchener for fourth spot in the Western Conference and the all-important home-ice advantage. They now sit five back with six games remaining and one game in hand.
The two teams meet one more time, March 13 in Guelph.
Guelph trailed 5-1 early in the third period but battled back with three goals in a 13-minute span of the third period. Tyler Bertuzzi’s goal with 4:24 left in regulation made it a one-goal game.
The Storm was pressing for the tying goal in the final minute when Kitchener’s Matt Puempel picked the pocket of the Storm’s Patrick Watling as he prepared to fire a wrist shot from the high slot. Puempel’s empty netter moments later sealed the win.
“Really, by getting it close, we were only kidding ourselves,” Walker said. “We didn’t play good whether it was the Kitchener Rangers or if it was a minor peewee team.”
Guelph couldn’t match Kitchener’s intensity early in the game and found themselves down 2-0 just 4:22 into the game.