When worst meets first, sometimes the best you can hope for is that it’s learning experience.
School was in at the Sleeman Centre Friday night when the OHL-best Erie Otters downed the Guelph Storm 4-1 in front of a crowd of 4,410.
“You can’t cheat for offence. We have a hard enough time generating offence, and you can see in our game that they’re starting to blow the zone and now we’re watching our defencemen swim on four-on-twos and stuff,” said Storm coach Jarrod Skalde.
“It’s just a matter of realizing that you can’t cheat for offence, you’ve got to defend and come from below the puck.”
The Otters big guns came to play, with Alex DeBrincat recording the hat trick, giving him 48 goals on the season, and Dylan Strome adding a goal and three assists.
DeBrincat is tied for second in the OHL goal scoring race, two back of London’s Christian Dvorak, who notched his 50th Friday night.
“We have to win the one-on-one battles and win those 50/50 battles,” Skalde said. “Obviously it wasn’t enough for long enough.”
DeBrincat got things going just 1:20 into the first period with the first of two Erie power play goals on the night.
The Otters led 2-0 after the first, during which the Storm didn’t have a shot on net until 13:27 into the game.
It was 3-0 after the second and stayed that way until the Storm’s C.J. Garcia found the top corner with a long shot with two minutes left in regulation. But DeBrincat iced it with an empty netter with 1:15 on the clock.
Skalde felt the Otters “took their foot off the pedal a bit” in the third period, allowing his team a “little bit of life.”
Guelph played without several regulars due to a flu outbreak, as Marc Stevens, Isaac Ratcliffe and Michael Giugovaz were all ill. Nick Deakin-Poot was out with a knee injury.
Giugovaz’s illness opened the door for Bradley Van Schubert to get a rare start and he responded with a solid 34-save effort.
Cedric Ralph dressed, as did Liam Buckley.
The Storm has five games left in its regular season, starting Saturday night in Erie.
They wrap up the home portion with games Tuesday against Sarnia and Owen Sound on Friday.
The season wraps up next weekend with road games in Flint on Saturday and Sault Ste. Marie on Sunday.
