Patrick Leaver has had quite a start to his Guelph Storm career.
Traded to the Guelph Storm in an exchange of goalies with the Oshawa Generals at the trade deadline, Leaver won all three of his starts with the Storm, the latest a thrilling 6-4 win over the Peterborough Petes Friday night at the Sleeman Centre.
"It's been an exciting week for sure," said the 19-year-old native of Perth, near Ottawa.
"They're super fun games. A couple of questionable calls that could have gone either way and we could have shut down from that, but we bounced back and had a good third period."
While he saw plenty of the Petes in his two seasons in Oshawa, he said the crew on the ice Friday was a completely different one than he's used to seeing.
"It's a whole different lineup, but I'm familiar with guys across the league and you've just got to be ready for them," said Leaver, who made 24 saves in the win.
With the Generals in rebuild mode, Leaver said he sensed a trade was coming.
"Yes and no. You kind of see it coming because their in a big rebuild there, but I still thought I was going to play my whole career there.
"I think this is what's best for me. I've got a chance to win here, this is a competitive team."
He said people started asking him days before the trade about going to Guelph.
"Actually it was strange, guys were asking me if it was true I was going to Guelph and I don't know how that started, but it turned out to be true."
Leaver knows Storm defenceman Isaac Enright, a fellow Ottawa-area native, well and he went to the Calgary Flames rookie camp this season with Braeden Bowman and Cooper Walker.
He also played for Storm assistant coach Todd Miller when he coached Oshawa briefly.
"A couple of familiar faces here for sure," Leaver said. "It's definitely a fresh start."
A sellout crowd of nearly 4,800 got quite the thriller Friday.
The Storm trailed 3-2 heading into the third period but scored three times in a span of 55 seconds to take a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
The game winner was scored by Jesse Fishman, who tipped an Isaac Enright point shot past Petes goaltender Michael Simpson.
The win was threatened late when Guelph defenceman Chandler Romeo was given a five minute match penalty for slew footing Peterborough's J.R. Avon during a battle for position in front of the Guelph net.
But the Storm penalty kill stood tall, Peterborough ended up taking a double high sticking minor, then Bowman sealed the deal with an empty netter, his second of the game.
Romeo, Ben McFarlane and Matt Poitras had the other Guelph goals.
Bowman now has 10 goals in his past six games.
Guelph will host the Kingston Frontenacs on Sunday at 2 p.m.
