Bad decisions. Bad breaks. Bad loss.
It was a very rough week for the Guelph Storm, who lost their third straight home game Saturday night at the Sleeman Centre, blowing a 3-1 lead in falling 5-3 to the London Knights.
It doesn't get any easier with another game Sunday afternoon in London, Guelph's fifth game in eight days.
Was it a case of running out of steam Saturday? as perhaps evidence by the fact they only had three shots on rookie Knights goaltender Owen Flores in the third period?
George Burnett wasn't about to use that as an excuse.
"I don't know if it was steam. I think we ran out of some thinking later in the hockey game," Burnett said.
"It was 3-1 and we make a poor change and make a poor decision on their second goal, which gave them life at the end of the period. If it's 3-1 at the end of the period I think we're in a different mindset in the third."
London made it 3-2 early in the third then tied it up on a lucky bounce that saw a pass deep in the Guelph zone hit a Storm player's skate and come straight to Sean McGurn who had a wide-open net to shoot at.
Another bad change, this one by the defence, coupled with a centre ice turnover, would allow Antonia Stranges to score the eventual game winner on a breakaway at 13:42 of the third.
An empty netter sealed the deal.
"I can't make any excuses. We are what we are and we had an opportunity to win a game tonight. If we're a good team, we find ways tonight to do the right things, put the puck in the right places and not take the penalties that we've taken," Burnett said.
The Guelph power play went scoreless in four attempts.
Owen Bennett's performance in net was perhaps the only bright spot for the Storm. He was rock solid, particularly to start the second period when he made four or five excellent saves with his team down 1-0. Without Bennett's six minutes of brilliance it might have been 4-0.
Instead he held the fort while the offence got on track, with Jake Karabela, Michael Buchinger and Braeden Bowman scoring in an eight-minute span of that middle period to put Guelph up 3-1.
"I thought Owen was outstanding tonight," Burnett said. "That was probably the highlight of our night. He gave us a chance to be up 3-1."
Guelph played without Matt Papais, who has a lower body injury.
Sunday's game is set for 2 p.m.
