Cedric Ralph couldn't let his buddy get one up on him.
The Guelph Storm forward's friend and former linemate, Barret Kirwin, had a hat trick for the Owen Sound Attack earlier this week so it was only fitting Ralph matched it with one of his own Friday night.
"Yeah, that's funny," said Ralph, whose three goals led the way as the Storm cruised to an 11-4 victory over the Windsor Spitfires at the Sleeman Centre.
"Everything's been clicking lately, even practices, There's a lot of confidence right now," said Ralph, who now has 20 goals on the season.
One of the reasons for the team's recent success has been an improved forecheck.
"We've been trying to get after teams a little more because we're one of the bigger and faster teams in the league," Ralph said.
Friday was Guelph's sixth consecutive win and the first time this season they have scored in double figures.
MacKenzie Entwistle (two and two) and Nate Schnarr (one and three) also had four point nights.
"He plays the game the right way every night," Storm coach George Burnett said of Ralph.
"Even if he doesn't score, you can't knock the effort, and tonight he was rewarded for his hard work and it's great to see, because he's an important part of our team."
The Storm has looked like a different team of late than the one that lost six of 11 games before the current winning streak.
Friday, they led 3-1 after one period then blew the game open with four unanswered goals in the second in a contest the Spitfires were never in.
Entwistle and Liam Hawel each had two goals and Isaac Ratcliffe, Dmitri Samorukov and Alexey Toropchenko had the others.
For Ratcliffe it was his sixth straight game with at least one goal. He now has 47 on the season.
"I think we were rewarded for some compete and hard work tonight," Burnett said. "It's nice to score some goals and it's nice to share it around."
Nico Daws got the start in net and made 27 saves.
Windsor goaltender Kari Piiroinen allowed nine goals before getting the mercy hook.
Guelph played the game without defenceman Sean Durzi, who is out with an upper body injury. He won't play Sunday in Kitchener. Durzi joins Keegan Stevenson (shoulder), Pavel Gogolev (ankle) and Cam Hillis (collarbone) on the injured list.
Next home game is Friday against Saginaw.
