Storm win in shootout
By Brendan Zwambag, Guelphstorm.com
The Guelph Storm rallied in a shootout to beat the Niagara IceDogs at the Sleeman Centre on Friday, Oct. 18, 2013.
“The fans got their excitement’s worth or whatever,” said a frustrated Scott Walker.
Niagara’s Anthony DiFruscia sent the game to an extra frame when he scored his second goal with 10 seconds remaining in regulation time.
Storm goaltender Justin Nichols took over from there, denying DiFruscia of his second hat-trick in as many nights. He turned away six shots in overtime and three of four in the shootout as Guelph improves to 5-0 at home this season.
“The guys found a way to win but sometimes I feel like we’re working just hard enough to just win and it’s extremely frustrating,” said Walker
“It’s not the way we like to win,” said Robby Fabbri, who scored a goal and added the winner in the fourth round of the shootout.
Brock McGinn scored the other shootout goal for Guelph after giving the Storm their second lead of the game in the third.
McGinn’s powerplay marker came just minutes after Fabbri found himself alone at the side of net with a wide-open cage. Fabbri’s goal evened the scoring just seconds after DiFruscia had given Niagara their second lead of the game.
Neither team was able to take control of the game, as they traded tallies back and forth.
Guelph got on the board first when Marc Stevens fed Scott Kosmachuk a beautiful breakaway pass. Kosmachuk went five-hole on Christopher Festarini as he pulled the puck to his backhand.
Nichols, and the team, had a poor showing for the rest of the first period. Nichols allowed two goals on the first three shots he faced. Brendan Perlini and Jordan Maletta scored for the Dogs, while the Storm offence struggled to control the puck and get anything going with their only powerplay of the period.
Then in the second, Tyler Bertuzzi cashed in on the powerplay for the only goal of the period. After drawing a high-sticking penalty in the Niagara zone, Bertuzzi made them pay when he crashed the net for a loose puck in the crease.
Bertuzzi, Kosmachuk, Phil Baltisberger, Ben Harpur, Hunter Garlent and Matt Finn all recorded assists on the night.
Despite Guelph’s 8-3-0-0 start to the season, Walker says he is “running out of positives.”
“Maybe it’s the curse of having an older team, they know that they can turn it on and we’ll play better [if they get down] but this league is too good to rely on that.”
“Sometimes we just get too high or too low and we just have to stay on an even keel,” said Fabbri. “We just have to stick to our game and we will be successful.”
Guelph will look for a better effort but the same result when the Ottawa 67’s visit the Sleeman Centre on Sunday afternoon. Game time is 2 p.m.
Storm 5, Ice Dogs 4 (OT)
1-0 GUE Kosmachuk (8) (Stevens, Baltisberger) 5:44
1-1 NIA Perlini (11) (Ming, Verhaeghe) 7:00
1-2 NIA Maletta (2) (DiFruscia, Robinson) 10:08
Penalties – DiFruscia NIA (Boarding) 12:34
2nd Period
2-2 GUE Bertuzzi (3) (Harpur, Garlent) 7:09 PP
Penalties – Haydon NIA (Cross Checking) 3:01, Graham NIA (High Sticking) 5:27, Knott NIA (High Sticking) 12:02, Harpur GUE (Interference) 13:22
3rd Period
2-3 NIA DiFruscia (6) (Mercer, Perlini) 9:02 PP
3-3 GUE Fabbri (5) (Kosmachuk) 9:22
4-3 GUE McGinn (9) (Finn Bertuzzi) 12:50 PP
4-4 NIA DiFruscia (7) (Mercer, Ming) 19:50 PP
Penalties – Knott NIA (Tripping) 3:56, Harpur GUE (High Sticking) 7:30, Mikulovich NIA (Kneeing) 11:28, Mitchell GUE (Tripping) 17:54, Horvat GUE (Unsportsmanlike Conduct) 19:50
Overtime
No Scoring
Penalties – None
Shootout
0-0 GUE Dickinson Save 0-1 NIA Verhaeghe Goal
1-1 GUE McGinn Goal 1-1 NIA Mercer Save
1-1 GUE Kosmachuk Save 1-1 NIA Perlini Miss
2-1 GUE Fabbri Goal 2-1 NIA Ming Save
Shots GUE 14-13-9-1 – 37 NIA 9-16-14-6 – 43
Goalies GUE Nichols (6-1-0-0) 39-43 NIA Festarini (4-2-0-2) 33-37
Powerplay GUE – 2-6 NIA – 2-4
3 Stars
1. Bertuzzi, GUE
2. DiFruscia, NIA
3. Kosmachuk, GUE
