A year ago Nate Schnarr was just trying to make the Guelph Storm.
These days he’s trying to make the team’s first line and power play unit.
Saturday night in Schnarr and import Albert Michnac each scored twice as the Storm lost 6-5 to the Hamilton Bulldogs in exhibition play at Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena.
“You’ve still got to battle for your spot,” the 17-year-old Waterloo native said.
“Even if you’re on the team you’re still battling for what line you’ll be on and what role you’ll play.
“They’re testing guys on the power play and on the penalty kill, so you just go out and work whatever role you’re given the best you can,” Schnarr said.
Guelph fell behind 3-0 early on Saturday night before rallying on several occasions to get within one.
Luke Burghardt had Guelph’s other goal.
Anthony Popovich faced 37 shots in the Guelph net and had a pretty solid outing considering four of Hamilton’s six goals came on the power play.
“If we stay disciplined we can really compete with a lot of teams in this league this year,” Schnarr said of all the penalties.
“Power play goals and momentum shifts. We’d just get rolling five-on-five and then a penalty would kill our momentum. It takes you out of the game.”
Quinn Hanna responded from a rough game Friday with a much better plus-3 outing Saturday.
Top scorers Givani Smith and James McEwan sat this one out, as did Garrett McFadden and Nic Sicoly. Noah Carroll started the game but left early with a minor injury.
Dmitri Samorukov, the team’s top pick in this year’s import draft, has arrived in Guelph after clearing up some paperwork issues in Russia. He did not play Saturday.
The organization also got some bad news during the game when second round pick Cam Hillis announced on Twitter that he had signed a letter of intent to play NCAA hockey at Providence College.
Guelph plays in Peterborough on Thursday and home to the Mississauga Steelheads on Friday.
