Scoring depth was supposed to be the Guelph Storm's strong point.
They made several trades to make sure they had three lines that could score and their top lines are littered with NHL draft picks.
But secondary scoring has been the bane of their existence in the Western Conference final.
A 4-1 loss on home ice Wednesday to the Saginaw Spirit put the Storm on the brink of elimination, down 3-1 in the series with Game 5 set for Friday in Saginaw.
Defenceman Dmitri Samorukov scored their lone goal Wednesday.
Only one forward, Isaac Ratcliffe, has more than one goal in the series.
Guelph outshot Saginaw 37-26, but it was fool's gold. Most of those shots came from the perimeter.
"I didn't have my team ready to play and I'll take full responsibility for that," Storm coach George Burnett said.
"There's not too much to find in the game. They were better at all facets of the game. Their power play was stronger, their kill was better, they got some big saves - we didn't test their young goaltender near enough tonight."
Storm forward Nate Schnarr said Saginaw just seemed like they were a step ahead of Guelph in the game.
That being said, the team knows it can rebound.
"It's tough to give one away on home ice like we did, but the message in the dressing room after the game was that 'we've done it before.' We've been down 3-0 against London, now we've got to look at ourselves in the mirror," Schnarr said.
Saginaw, down two top six defencemen and their starting goalie, led 1-0 after the first period.
Owen Tippet's blast to the glove side made it 2-0 in the second then former Storm forward Albert Michnac made it 3-0 late in the middle period.
Samorukov's power play goal early in the third invoked the faint hope clause among the 4,698 in attendance, but a brief burst of energy was snuffed out when Cole Perfetti restored Saginaw's three-goal lead with 8:12 left in the game.
"It's important that we have a chance to digest what happened here but put it behind us quickly," Burnett said.
"I don't think to a man there's any of us that want to finish our season playing as poorly as we did tonight."
Saginaw coach Chris Lazary said his team isn't ready to celebrate a series win just yet.
"These guys are a scary team. We just watched what they did last series, coming back from 3-0, so I think our group realizes we have a long way to go," Lazary said.
"These guys are a legit team, we know that. This series is long from over. There's no celebration in our room," Lazary said. "We know we're going to have our hands full next game."
The winner of this series will meet the Ottawa 67's in the OHL final after the 67's completed their sweep of the Oshawa Generals Wednesday.
