It was late, and the Guelph Storm needed a hero.
Enter Jett Luchanko.
With 1:29 left in regulation, he stepped into the high slot and sent the Sleeman Centre into a frenzy with the eventual game-winner, capping off a 4-3 win over the Owen Sound Attack in a see-saw battle Friday night.
"(I was) just creeping into the zone, and (Matthew) Poitras made a really nice play, checked his shoulder and slid it to me," the 2022 first-rounder said of his goal, just the third of his young OHL career.
"For a young man, he can play some good minutes for you, important minutes, kill penalties, take important faceoffs," said Storm head coach Chad Wiseman. "He had a great game tonight."
But it wasn't just him.
After getting outscored 9-2 in their past two games – both losses to the Kitchener Rangers last Saturday and Tuesday respectively – the response against another divisional opponent was a good one, with better attention to detail, according to the bench boss.
"That's a tough team over there. They're fast, they're competitive, they play with pace," Wiseman said of the Attack. "I thought we responded well, and I thought we responded well after each goal Owen Sound scored tonight."
"It's what we expect when we play our biggest rival," Luchanko added. "We played a really good game. I think we had the puck in their zone for a lot of the time, and we got it done, so that's what matters."
Neither team would score two consecutive goals in this one. It was textbook back-and-forth hockey. Guelph would score, Owen Sound replies. Guelph scores again, the Attack tied it up.
But in a 3-3 game after a wild second period, things settled down for the most part in the third.
"I thought that Owen Sound kind of carried the momentum there for about two or three minutes where we had to defend pretty well, and they were coming in waves," Wiseman said. "We weathered that storm late, defended well, advanced pucks and then Jett got rewarded."
All the while, both teams had a tough time keeping apart, with multiple scrums after the whistle.
"We spoke a bit about that between periods," Wiseman said. "Skate away, stay out of the scrums, don't get involved. At the end of the day, it's just a waste of energy."
Isaac Enright, wearing number 24, was paired up with Michael Buchinger in his Storm debut.
Max Namestnikov and Michael Buchinger had first period tallies, sandwiching an Attack reply from former Storm forward Matt Papais.
Chase Coughlan potted his first of the season to round out the scoring on the Guelph side of things.
Brayden Gillespie made 29 saves in the win.
And after all that, the two teams will do it again Saturday night in Owen Sound, before Guelph comes back to wrap up the three-in-three weekend Sunday afternoon against the OHL-leading Ottawa 67's.
