Sometimes you deserve better, sometimes you get exactly what you deserve.
It was a case of the latter Friday night, as the Guelph Storm were, for the most part, completely outplayed by the Owen Sound Attack, falling 6-3 before 4,683 at the Sleeman Centre.
"We let their top-end players generate offence off the rush and that's something you can't do against Owen Sound," said Storm coach Chad Wiseman.
"I thought our energy was okay, I just don't think our energy and our execution were great. A game where we could climb the standings and get closer to them ... but give them credit, they played the right way. They played hard and they played with pace and I thought they outworked us."
Guelph sits in seventh place in the Western Conference, four points back of the Flint Firebirds and three ahead of the Soo Greyhounds and Kitchener Rangers.
The Attack were ready to go from the puck drop, controlling the pace and possession and jumping out to a 2-1 lead after the first period.
Three Attack goals in a span of 9:18 in the second period put the game out of reach.
Tips, screens, bad ones .... the Attack scored pretty much every way possible.
The fifth goal, a short-side wrister at 12:08 of the third that made it 5-1 that should have been stopped, was the end of Patrick Leaver's night, with Brayden Gillespie mopping up.
The Storm showed some life at the end of the second, when Cooper Walker and then Max Namestnikov both got in fights (Walker with former teammate Matt Papais and Namestnikov with the much bigger Madden Steen).
They also played a solid third, but couldn't generate much offence. They were outshot 32-19.
Matt Poitras and Michael Buchinger each had a goal and an assist for the Storm. Ryan McGuire had the other goal.
"We got away from our systems the first two periods and the score showed that," said Walker.
"We played well in the third period, not allowing any goals, and I think it showed that when we play our game it's a lot better. But we fell into too many mistakes the first two periods."
Walker said there was no excuse for the poor start.
"You've got to come prepared to work and if you don't start well it's tough when the other team does. It's tough to battle back from that."
Guelph hosts the Sudbury Wolves Sunday at 2 p.m.
