It was a positive start to the pre-season for the Guelph Storm Friday night at the Sleeman Centre.
Givani Smith scored a pair of goals and Austin Hall added the other as the Storm downed the Hamilton Bulldogs 3-1.
More importantly it was a chance for some of the Storm rookies to get their feet wet.
The Storm had three 16 year olds in the lineup - Ryan Merkley, Luke Moncada and Barret Kirwin - and all three played well.
Import Albert Michnac also saw his first OHL action and looked very solid.
"I talked to all the young guys before the game. I said 'you have the right to be nervous and you're probably going to make mistakes and that's okay, we'll correct them,'" Storm coach Jarrod Skalde said.
Merkley showed flashes of the on-ice vision that made him the first overall pick in the OHL entry draft, Moncada was involved and skated very well for a big player and Kirwin could easily have had three points with a little puck luck.
"I liked our compete level. That's all we really asked of our guys. We didn't want to get too structured. Everybody did a good job out there," Skalde said.
Smith scored in the first period on a power play tip-in then finished off a nice two-on-one play with James McEwan early in the second to stake the Storm to a 2-0 lead.
Smith then had the honour of being the first Storm player to be benched this year.
After serving a 10-minute misconduct he picked up at the end of the second period, Skalde benched Smith for the rest of the game.
"We need him on the ice. We're not putting up with that," Skalde said of Smith's misconduct.
Liam Herbst went all the way in net for the Storm and was rock solid. His 22 saves on the night included a couple of breakaway stops.
The Storm has cut the training camp roster down to 25 players - 26 when Russian Dmitri Samorukov arrives in camp.
Cuts Thursday included former winger Evan Brown, the former third round pick who missed almost two years of hockey with a concussion.
Not dressing for the Storm Friday were Brock Philips, Levi Tetrault, Nick Deakin-Poot, Cedric Ralph and Jake Bricknell.
The same two teams play Saturday night at Hamilton's Mountain Arena.
Guelph plays Thursday in Peterborough and then hosts Mississauga on Friday.
