It seemed fitting that a game that had more than its share of oddities should end that way.
When all was said and done, all that mattered for the Guelph Storm and the 500 fans allowed to attend the game was that it was another loss, a 2-1 setback to the Owen Sound Attack. Guelph's fourth in a row and sixth in its past seven games.
How strange was it?
- Owen Sound scored twice in the final one minute, 25 seconds of the game to grab the win
- Guelph was called three times for having too many men on the ice
- Owen Sound went 0-for-9 on the power play
- Guelph went 0-for-6 on the power play
In a string of tough losses, this one had to sting a bit more.
"They're all stinging right now," said Storm coach George Burnett.
"We've got to figure it out. We played through the first period tonight like we were waiting for bad things to happen and we got through that ... but for us to take nine minor penalties, that's just not good enough and it's going to kill us if we don't get that straightened out right away.
"Jacob gave us such a great effort and we killed nine penalties off, but we didn't have enough guys that were part of it tonight. We've got some guys feeling sorry for themselves a little bit and looking for excuses, and that's not going to work."
With Guelph's Jacob Oster and Owen Sound's Nick Chenard both in top form between the pipes, it looked like Guelph scored the only goal that might matter when Ben McFarlane set up Brayden Guy on a two-on-one rush with 6:23 left in the third.
But with the goalie pulled, Nick Porco swatted home a rebound to tie the game with 1:25 left on the clock to tie things up.
Servac Petrovsky scored the winner 36 seconds later, a wrist shot that clipped defenceman Michael Buchinger's stick and knuckled enough to find its way between Oster's arm and body.
"It's obviously upsetting, leading then falling 2-1 in the last two minutes, but there's not a lot you can do. You just have to look forward to tomorrow and we've got to bring our 'A' game," said McFarlane.
McFarlane felt bad for his goaltender, given how well he played overall.
"Credit to Jacob. He's a great goalie and he played great tonight," McFarlane said.
There's no magic potion for ending the losing skid.
"It's just everybody giving 100 per cent every night, just bearing down. We're going to have to get pretty dirty if we want to get out of this slump," McFarlane said.
Burnett said the three too many men penalties were on him as head coach.
He added it wasn't the first time it's happened to him. The other time was in his first weekend as a head coach in the American Hockey League and the entire Edmonton Oilers top brass was in town to watch the game.
"I still get kidded about that one," Burnett said.
Guelph plays in Owen Sound Saturday night.
