Storm capitalize on slow start by Greyhounds (video, 4 photos)

A quick start by their opponent meant a night of chasing for the Soo Greyhounds on Tuesday night.

The Guelph Storm scored twice in the opening 2:27 of play en route to a 6-3 win over the Greyhounds at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph in Ontario Hockey League playoff action.

Greyhounds coach John Dean said the Storm “came out with a clear sense of purpose” in the first period.

“They played with pace, they got pucks to our goalie, they had a great start,” Dean said. “Combine that with us being asleep at the wheel and lacking energy. Maybe success got to our head a little bit and we needed a reminder of how hard we worked for that.”

“Anytime you let a team jump all over you like that and go up two or three goals, it’s definitely disappointing,” added overage forward Cole MacKay. “That’s not what we wanted to accomplish in the first 10 (minutes) obviously. They came out hungry and we have to find a way to match that.”

Storm coach George Burnett said following the game that the team showed more energy than the opening two games of the series.

“We started well. We had more energy and more pace to our game tonight,” Burnett said in an interview with GuelphToday.

“I’d still like to see a lot more traffic in front of their net and a lot more chance, but there was more tonight than in games one and two,” Burnett also said.

Discipline was also a factor for the Greyhounds in the loss with the Storm going to the power play six times in the game.

“It has to be better,” Calisti said of the discipline for the Greyhounds. “Emotions run high, but we have to keep it in check whether we think it’s a penalty or not, we know they’re calling it so we have to be more disciplined. Penalties killed us.”

Calisti added that the penalty kill “did a good job.”

“It was good for the most part,” Calisti added. “But power plays give them momentum, so it we stay out of the box, then we can be okay.”

Asked about a penalty taken by Greyhounds defenceman Ryan O’Rourke that ultimately led to the game-winning goal in the game, Dean said controlling emotions has been a talking point for the team early in the series.

“We didn’t do a good job of that tonight and they capitalized with the game-winning goal on that penalty,” Dean said. “The last two games, we took some undisciplined penalties, and we were on the right side of the scoreboard and we didn’t learn our lesson.”

While the start was a concern, Dean said he was “very happy with the way the guys battled” after falling behind.

“There’s no question about the compete and belief in that room,” Dean said.

MacKay added that he felt the Greyhounds response after falling behind was “very good.”

“We crawled back to make it a one-goal game a couple of times,” MacKay said. “Through all of the penalties and everything else going on, we kept with it, so that’s a positive for us.”

The Storm got on the board first just 1:46 into the game when Ben McFarlane scored on a rebound in the left circle after Greyhounds goaltender Tucker Tynan stopped Brayden Guy from the slot initially on the play.

Guelph made it 2-0 just 41 seconds later when Jake Karabela beat Tynan on a one-timer from the slot off a pass by Matthew Papais.

Tye Kartye got the Greyhounds on the board midway through the opening period on the power play when he scored on a rebound from the slot, beating Storm goaltender Jacob Oster after the rookie netminder stopped a point shot by Ryan O’Rourke through traffic.

With 3:29 to go in the period, Danny Zhilkin made it 3-1 Guelph when he deflected a point shot by Cam Allen past Tynan.

The Greyhounds again cut the Guelph lead to one when Cole MacKay deflected a point shot from Jordan D’Intino past Oster at 6:18 of the second period.

The Storm took a 4-2 lead when Valentin Zhugin found himself in the slot and one-timed a pass from Braeden Bowman below the goalline past Tynan at 12:04.

Bryce McConnell- Barker cut the lead back down to one again just 54 seconds into he third periods when he took a pass from Robert Calisti, skated into the right circle, and beat Oster high stick side to make it 4-3.

McFarlane got his second of the night with 1:36 to go, scoring into an empty net before Brayden Guy added a second empty net goal with five seconds left to cap off the scoring.

O’Rourke assisted on a pair of Sault goals.

Tynan stopped 32 shots for the Greyhounds in the loss.

“Tucker continues to be a rock for us,” Dean said. “The great part about our hockey club in general is we always think we can be better in every area at all times. We try to preach that there’s always something that we could have done differently. I’m sure Tucker would have goals that he’ll talk about with (goaltender coach) Matt Smith that he feels he could have done differently, but he played rock solid again. He keeps us in that hockey game early in the first period when it could have been ugly and gives us a chance to battle back.”

Guy finished the night with a goal and two assists for the Storm while Karabela chipped in with a goal and an assist.

Bowman assisted on a pair of goals for the Storm.

Coming off a 38-performance in game two, Oster made 36 saves for Guelph in game three.

For the Storm, the win comes on the heels of dropping the opening two games of the Western Conference quarter-final series between the two clubs in Sault Ste. Marie. The Greyhounds picked up a 3-0 win in game one before beating the Storm 4-1 in game two.

Game four is set for Thursday night in Guelph with game five set for Saturday night in Sault Ste. Marie.

On the injury front, defenceman Luka Profaca was in the lineup for the Storm after leaving game two due to injury, but Guelph was minus another veteran defenceman in Daniil Chayka. Chayka missed Tuesday’s game due to a non-COVID related illness.