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Guelph Storm turns in a stinker in front of big Family Day crowd

It was over early at the Sleeman Centre

You had a sense Guelph Storm coach Jarrod Skalde was biting his tongue after Monday’s 5-1 loss at the Sleeman Centre.

It was an awful game.

The Storm was outworked, outsmarted and outskated from the drop of the puck and only 10 minutes of third period action mostly against Flint’s third and fourth lines provided even a crumb of excitement for a packed house of 4,700.

Flint had a game plan and that was to come after us and we had absolutely no answer for them,” said Skalde.

“Right from the start we looked like a tired group and our compete level certainly wasn’t enough to match what they came with. That team over there has come a long way since the beginning of the year and they work.”

Overall it was a terrible defensive effort by the entire team.

Forwards were late getting back or took the wrong man, defencemen were getting caught up ice continually Flint had more odd-man rushes than you could shake a stick at.

“I just thought we turned over the puck too many times … our defence was getting caught up ice. Our message was just take care of the puck. Tonight, for some reason, our defence wanted to get caught up more in the play and it was costing us.

“There was more odd-man rushes in that first period than we’ve seen in a long time in a game,” Skalde said.

Flint led 3-0 by the 14:01 mark of the first period and the game was pretty much done.

Nick Deakin-Poot’s third goal in three games late in the third period was the lone tally for the Storm.

Liam Herbst let in the first four goals before being replaced by Anthony Popovich early in the second period.

Herbst couldn’t really be blamed. The first goal was a tipped point shot and the next two were both on two-on-one rushes, including one where he made the first save but no forward came back to take a trailing Firebirds player, who slotted it into an empty net.

Perhaps most frustrating is that Monday’s effort came after a pair of solid outings: a win Friday at home against the Barrie Colts and a tough 3-1 loss in Windsor on Saturday night.

For the third straight game the Storm played with just five defencemen, four of them rookies.

Things get even tougher next weekend when the Storm hosts the Erie Otters on Friday night and the London Knights on Sunday afternoon.


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Tony Saxon

About the Author: Tony Saxon

Tony Saxon has had a rich and varied 30 year career as a journalist, an award winning correspondent, columnist, reporter, feature writer and photographer.
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