Braeden Guy has a pretty good idea about what it takes to be a good captain.
"Just putting the team first. I've always been the kind of guy that had the right attitude when things don't go right in the room and sway that attitude in the right direction," said Guy Friday night after the Guelph Storm downed the Saginaw Spirit 3-0 at the Sleeman Centre.
The Storm made it official earlier Friday, naming Guy the 30th captain in team history. He was the captain of the Sarnia Sting for a season and a half before arriving in Guelph via a trade in early January. They had gone without a captain all season.
"Obviously coming into a new team you don't expect that right away, but I kind of got the sense before I came here that if the move happened it was a big reason I was going to come here," Guy said of being named captain.
"I'm thankful for the opportunity. Definitely a little bit surprised but more thankful and excited.
Guy had some good role models when it came to captaining a team. His first year in Sarnia in captain was Jordan Kyrou and the next two seasons Ryan McGregor was his captain.
"Having such good leaders growing up and some great leaders to look up to and role models that helped me form the way that I do things and I lead. It's pretty important to me and something I've always taken pride in," said the Brampton native.
"I definitely looked up to him," Guy said of McGregor, "and I hope these guys do to same to me."
Guelph won on home ice for the first time since Dec. 18 Friday, in front of 2,500 at the Sleeman Centre.
Matt Papais scored the only goal that mattered in the second period and Braeden Bowman and Danny Zhilkin added insurance goals in the third.
Owen Bennett made 17 saves for his third shutout of the season. Bennett was called into duty when the scheduled starter, Jacob Oster, was hurt in warm-up.
Storm coach/GM knew he had a leader before Guy arrived in the Royal City.
"I thought there was a great chance to be a significant part of our leadership group for sure, and he established himself very quickly," Burnett said.
"Very quickly you could see guys gravitate to him ... he comes to work every day like a pro."
Burnett was very pleased with the output Friday in the win over Saginaw, a game that saw them hold the visitors to 17 shots on net.
"We haven't played well at home for a while and there was lots of different reasons for it, but I thought we played well tonight, I thought we competed and Owen came in under difficult circumstances...it's not easy to come in off the bench but that tells me Owen was ready."
The Storm played without four regulars: Charlie Paquette and Chase Coughlan were suspended for their part in a melee in Saginaw last weekend, Sasha Pastujov was ill and Daniil Chayka has a lower body injury.
Guelph will host the Owen Sound Attack in a Family Day game Monday at 2 p.m.
