Another lesson learned for the young Guelph Storm.
This one? Holding on to a lead.
The Storm turned in a rock solid effort for the most part Friday night at the Sleeman Centre, leading 3-1 heading into the third period and 3-2 late against the Erie Otters with the clock winding down.
But things got hectic and fell apart in the Storm end and Kyle Maksivmovich tied the game with 17 seconds left on the clock when too many Guelph players ended up on the same side of the ice chasing the puck.
The Otters’ Ivan Lodnia was then the lone player out of eight shooters to score in the shootout as Erie left with a 4-3 victory.
“We talked about it during the time out, that we had to stay tight, they had to come to us,” said Storm coach Jarrod Skalde of the tying goal, “but we started extending and doing someone else’s job and it exposed the whole side of the ice.
“It’s unfortunate to have that lead and see it go away, but the effort was there.”
Lodnia went five-hole for the winner on Storm goaltender Liam Herbst, who was rock solid all night.
Isaac Ratcliffe, Nate Schnarr, Givani Smith and Luke Burghardt were all stopped by Erie goaltender Jake Lawr.
After two blowout losses, it was certainly a welcome effort for locals.
The entire lineup saw plenty of ice time and Herbst turned in his best performance in some time, making several key saves in regulation and in overtime.
Even a makeshift line of Cedric Ralph, Quinn Hanna and Levi Tetrault – the latter two normally defencemen – had several quality shifts.
“Overall I thought we played a really good game, but we made a couple of little mistakes that cost us,” said Storm Schnarr, who had one of the Storm goals. Givani Smith and Albert Michnac had the others.
“We’re a young team and we’ve just got to learn to hold on to those one and two-goal leads and be smart at the end of games,” Schnarr said.
The Storm led 2-1 after one period and 3-1 after two.
Forwards Brock Philips (jaw injury), Jake Bricknell (suspension) and Nick Deakin-Poot (upper body) all missed the game with injury. Nic Sicoly and Luke Moncada were healthy scratches.
Next up for Gueph is the Kitchener Rangers, who visit the Sleeman Centre Sunday afternoon.
Boxscore: Erie 4 Guelph 3 (SO)
