It was a weekend from hell for the Guelph Storm.
Three games, three losses and outscored 13-5. Topped off with a 4-0 loss to the London Knights on home ice Sunday night.
A team that was in first place when the league broke for the holidays is now in sixth place in the Western Conference.
"Until Christmas we had very little adversity, everyone was healthy and we were firing on all cylinders," said George Burnett of what's gone wrong since the break. "It would be easy to stand here and make a lot of excuses. We dealt with a not playing for a month (due to COVID), now we've been hit hard with injuries.
"Long haul, we're not going to survive with the schedule and the guys that are missing from our group, really three of our top four defencemen out of the lineup. It puts too much pressure on three 16 year olds who are playing way too many minutes and it shows.
"We need a rest and we need to find a way to get back on track," the Storm coach said.
Some bad penalties played a key role in London's win Sunday.
Danny Zhilkin was called behind the play for cross-checking with under a second left in the first period, helping London open the scoring on a Cody Morgan power play early in the second.
Luke Evangelista's breakaway goal eight minutes later – his 50th of the season – made it 2-0, then Brody Crane poked home a loose puck to make it 3-0 heading to the third.
In the third period a frustrated Cooper Walker was called for a needless boarding penalty, which again led to a Knights power play goal.
Owen Flores made 31 saves for the shutout while Owen Bennett made 27 stops in the Storm net.
On the flip side, the Storm power play went scoreless in four attempts, as yet another element of their game continues to be affected by the loss of power play regulars Danill Chayka and Michael Buchinger.
Buchinger (suspension) is set to return to the team on Saturday and Burnett said Ashton Reesor (broken jaw) is also expected to be back before the playoffs. The prognosis on Chayka (lower body) isn't quite so optimistic, with his return still unknown. Chayka is no longer on crutches, if that's any reason for optimism.
"It certainly affects the power play. We've got two guys who run both units and have certainly had a lot of success there," he said.
"We're down on each other. We just need to clear our heads, take a couple of days, then get back to work ... being healthy and rested when the playoffs get here is our number one priority."
Guelph hosts Owen Sound Friday then plays in Flint on Saturday and Saginaw on Sunday.
