On a night where everything was green, the Guelph Storm made the visiting Sarnia Sting see red.
Two goals 82 seconds apart late in the third period allowed the Storm to beat the Sting 7-6 in a shootout Friday night at the Sleeman Centre.
After allowing the opening goal, the Storm scored three times in the first period for a 3-1 lead. But the Sting would answer late the period with two goals to tie the game up at 3-3 after one period.
“I liked our first period,” said Storm head coach Chad Wiseman. “Maybe gave up a few goals that we would like to have back.”
With the game tied at 4-4, Sarnia would retake the lead with two goals early in the third period and were up 6-4.
But with 3:28 left in the third, Marcus Limpar-Lantz received a boarding penalty for Sarnia. And with goaltender Brayden Gillespie (28 saves) on the bench, Braeden Bowman scored his second of the game on a 6-on-4 power play with 2:41 remaining in the period to get the Storm back to within a goal.
Then with 1:29 left, with Gillespie again on the bench for an extra attacker, Max Namestnikov got his second goal of the game to tie it up at 6-6.
“It’s not over until the last buzzer,” said Bowman, who finished with 5 points on the night. “It is a 60-minute game for a reason. We keep playing the whole time and we got rewarded.”
Bowman was the only shooter of the three Storm players in the shootout that scored. Gillespie stopped all three Sting shooters.
“We deserved the outcome,” said Wiseman. “Overall, it’s one of the best efforts of the year.”
Cooper Walker and Cam Allen also scored for the Storm (32-27-4-1).
Former Storm forward Sasha Pastujov had a goal and an assist in his first game in Guelph since being traded back in November. Luca Del Bel Belluz scored and collected two assists while Ben Gaudreau made 22 saves for the Sting (37-17-5-4).
The next game for the Storm is Saturday night when they head down to Erie to take on the Otters. Larry Mellott will have the call of the game on 1460 CJOY.
The pre-game show begins at 6:45 p.m., the puck drops at 7 p.m.
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