A heck of an effort resulted in a heck of a win Friday night at the Sleeman Centre.
The Guelph Storm built up an early 2-0 lead then hung on to defeat the country’s top-ranked squad, downing the Erie Otters 4-
Goaltender Anthony Popovich made 44 saves, James McEwan scored twice then switched ends of the bench to help out on defence.
“We’ve beat them before here and we knew that we could do it again,” said McEwan.
“Popovich played unreal. There’s no doubt about it that he should have been first star,” said McEwan, who took first star honours.
“What did he make, 48 saves or something like that? (it was 44). That’s incredible against a team like that.”
McEwan had to play defence after the team’s lone veteran blueliner, Kyle Rhodes, suffered a hand injury after being hit by a slap shot midway through the second period and did not return.
That left the team with four rookie defencemen who deserved plenty of praise for a gutsy effort.
“I thought everybody contributed,” Storm coach Jarrod Skalde said. “It was just a great effort by everybody and some really special plays too.”
The Storm, second last in the OHL, has now taken six of a possible 10 points in games against
“We play tough against them, we play tough against the Soo and we play tough against
Popovich put the win at the top of his rookie highlight reel.
“That’s got to be up there with my first win. It felt really good to get that one … it’s kind of cool actually, just a couple of years ago I was watching that team play on TV,” Popovich said.
“I kind of like being busy as long as it’s not a breakaway every time. I like getting the shots. It keeps me in the game and making saves gives the team energy,” Popovich said.
Liam Hawel had
Alex DeBrincat scored at 3:49 of the third period to set up a thrilling finish, which included
