They got away with one.
Nobody on the Guelph Storm was feeling too full of themselves after Sunday's 5-4 overtime win over the struggling Niagara IceDogs.
Losers of 13 straight coming into Guelph, Niagara outworked and outplayed the Storm for most of the game and likely deserved better than another loss.
A third-period rally and some goal-mouth digging by Cam Hillis saved the day.
"We're not going to over-analyze the game today. We, to a man, recognize that we weren't sharp ... lot's of guys had tough nights tonight," said Storm coach George Burnett.
"If there's any good that came out of it, it's that we found a way."
Burnett said they were lucky to be able to learn from a game and still come away with two points.
"Give (Niagara) some credit today, they outworked us for basically the entire hockey game."
The Storm trailed by two with 13 minutes to go, the Storm got a goal off a Fedor Gordeev rush then tied the game with 13 seconds on the clock on a seeing-eye wrister from the point.
Hillis won it, poking home the rebound left by another Gordeev rush 2:10 into the bonus hockey.
"I think we took these guys too lightly and they showed us that's not the case," said Gordeev. "But it was a big strong finish from us and that's all that matters, that we got the two points."
Gordeev joined the rush much more than usual, but said that was a matter of circumstance.
"We were down a couple and I figured I've got to get up in the rush as much as I can," he said.
Guelph started backup Owen Bennett in net and he was yanked after allowing four goals on 11 shots.
"We're not going to point a finger at anybody for this one. This is on everybody, me included," Burnett said.
After Bennett got the hook six minutes into the second period, Niagara only had six shots the rest of the game.
The Storm went scoreless on four power plays and now hasn't scored with the man advantage in six consecutive games.
Andrei Bakanov joined the walking wounded, missing Sunday's game with a mid-body injury. Bakanov, Jacob Roach (foot) and Cedric Ralph (upper body) are all day-to-day while Cooper Walker (charley horse) is likely another week away.
The Storm travels to London to meet the Knights on Wednesday.
