Ups and downs continue for young Storm
From the Stands
By Paul Osborne
From elation to disappointment – it’s all in a weekend of hockey when you’re a fan of the Guelph Storm. Everyone understands this is a young, developing team but with that comes all kinds of emotions.
Friday night they pulled off a huge upset to begin their eastern swing downing the nationally ranked Ottawa 67’s 5-4. It was to be their toughest game of the weekend with the .500 Belleville Bulls on deck Saturday and the sad-sack Kingston Frontenacs an easy way to wrap up the weekend.
It looked good too with the Storm up 1-0 with 15 minutes to play in Belleville Saturday night but a couple of bad turnovers turned a win into a 3-1 loss. Then Sunday, again they jumped out to an early 2-1 lead after the first before giving up five of the next six goals and enduring a long bus ride back to the Royal City.
Just when it looks like this club is about to turn the corner, they hit an “Under Construction” sign that sends them along an alternate route.
“This team has been a lot like the stock market,” said head coach Scott Walker. “Sometimes our players go up but you have go down further to climb back even higher. Some guys are higher than we projected they’d be at this point, and the great thing about these games is that we have been learning about each and every player. They’ve been put into situations a lot of young players haven’t been so they are doing fine.”
No doubt injuries played a part in the up-and-down weekend. That is what made Friday’s win so impressive. Matt Finn, Tanner Richard, Brock McGinn and Justin Auger were all out of the line-up and they still found a way to win. Finn, who suffered a leg injury Tuesday in Kitchener, fought his way back into the line-up Sunday and scored a goal, but it wasn’t enough.
When all is said and done, it looks like Guelph, Sault Ste. Marie and Windsor will battle it out for the final two playoff spots in the Western Conference. The Greyhounds have a veteran laden team that has underperformed all season, while the Spitfires are even younger than the Storm.
“It is because we are so close (to learning how to win consistently) that as a coach you want to push, push, push and not accept losing,” said Walker as the bus drove the team home Sunday night. “We’ve got a lot of guys banged up, and I know a lot of other teams do as well, but we don’t have the luxury of a hugely deep team so the young kids are asked to carry a lot of weight.
“Everyone here is playing for something. (Garret) Sparks thinks he’s in pretty good shape now but if you’re going to play 50 to 60 games young need to be in even better shape. The 19-year-olds are playing for overage spots and there is no guarantee for the 18-year-olds either – everyone has to earn their playing team.”
From the jubilation of Friday’s win to the frustration of Sunday’s defeat, just like the 401, this season always seems to be under construction.
From the Land of Oz . . . Hunter Garlent had two goals and Scott Kosmachuk a goal and two assists in the win over Ottawa. Sparks made a couple of huge saves late to preserve the win. Jason Dickinson had the lone goal Saturday in Belleville while Kosmachuk, Finn and Patrick Watling had the goals in Kingston . . . Guelph hosts Sarnia Feb. 17 at 7:30 p.m.
