Welcome to the Nick Suzuki show.
The dynamic Guelph Storm centre was the difference again Wednesday night at the Sleeman Centre as the Guelph Storm downed the Ottawa 67's 5-4 in a game that wasn't really that close at a sold-out Sleeman Centre.
The win evens the best-of-seven OHL championship series at two apiece.
Game 5 goes Friday night in Ottawa and a Game 6 is guaranteed Sunday afternoon in Guelph.
Suzuki had a goal and two assists, giving him 38 points in the playoffs, a new Storm single season record.
"We've played a lot of games and I've had a lot of opportunity," said Suzuki, who surpassed Marty St. Pierre's 2004 total of 35 points.
"The guys I'm playing with, Ratcliffe and Entwistle, are just pounding the puck and creating a lot of opportunity," Suzuki said.
Storm coach George Burnett said he was most impressed by the way the big line maintained puck possession.
"They had the puck tonight, and that's the key thing for us," Burnett said. "When they have the puck and the other team don't, they can put us in a real momentum swing.
"We realize the line they're matched up against are equally skilled and strong and if they don't have the puck and they're in their zone, they can't be very effective at the other end," Burnett said.
The opening 10 minutes showed little indication of what was to come.
Ottawa opened the scoring on an early goal by Hudson Wilson and the Storm only had one shot on Cedrick Andree over the first eight minutes.
But then they took over.
A power play goal by Nate Schnarr brought the barn to life and then Alexey Toropchenko scored 85 seconds later put the Storm in control.
They led 4-2 after two periods, setting up an interesting third period that saw Ottawa score twice in the final four minutes with the goalie pulled.
Sandwiched in there was an empty netter by Guelph that was called back on a questionable offside call.
But Ottawa's final goal came with just 2.9 seconds left. Too little too late.
"So far the score has dictated the tempo of the game. When we get going and score a few goals we get momentum. Same thing for them," said Ottawa coach Andre Tourigny.
"For us we have to find momentum by more than just scoring one goal," Tourigny said. "A different way than just scoring goals."
"We're not good enough if we just play on our talent," 67's forward Tye Felhaber said, adding that his team played just one good period out of the six at the Sleeman Centre the past two games.
Ottawa goaltender Andree allowed five goals on 24 shots, but Ottawa coach Andre Tourigny wasn't about to blame his goaltender.
"I don't think Ceddi is the reason" for the two losses, Tourigny said.
There appears to be a chance that Mikey DiPietro could return to the 67's net for Game 5.
Tourigny said DiPietro told him he had some "good news" when he arrived at the rink just prior to game time, but Tourigny hadn't had a chance to find out more.
"Good news for the coach might be he practices tomorrow. Good news for him might be two weeks. I don't know," Tourigny said.
"The only thing I know is he told me he had good news," Tourigny said immediately after the game.
DiPietro has been out of the lineup since leaving Game 2 with an ankle injury.
