Guelph Storm coach Jarrod Skalde shuffled the deck Friday night at the Sleeman Centre and immediately came up with a winning hand.
Some new line combinations paid immediate dividends and goaltender Liam Herbst had a superb showing in a 3-1 victory over the third-ranked Erie Otters.
Luke Burghardt had his first career Gordie Howe hat trick to lead the way, scoring the game’s first goal, setting up Isaac Ratcliffe for the second goal, then dropping the gloves with the Otters’ Mitch Byrne in the third period.
“My first Gordie Howe felt nice,” said Burghardt, choosing the fight as his favourite third of the hat trick.
“We’ve been shuffling the lines around quite a bit, trying to get something to fit, and I think we might have found a little bit tonight, so that’s good,” Burghardt said.
“Some times it takes a while to get clicking, but sometimes guys work better together than others.”
Skalde admitted it was one of Burghardt’s best games of the season and definitely Herbst’s best game of the season
“I thought we needed to spread it (the team’s skill) out a little bit,” Skalde said of the line juggling.
“Burghardt was all over the place, skating and shooting,” Skalde said.
Herbst earned the deserved first star honours.
He made 35 saves, several of them of the highlight-reel variety, in his best performance in a while.
“I think that we came out on a mission tonight to get two points and that’s exactly what we did,” said Herbst.
“I’ve said it in the past, when we play as a team, when we battle, play smart and compete, we can beat anybody in this league.”
Herbst said it was a matter of every player putting the team first and not cheating.
“All 20 guys were going tonight and that’s what we need to beat a team like that,” he said.
The Storm also figured out how to play well with a slim lead Friday, something they’ve struggled with several times this season.
To a man they played a focused and structured game against the high-scoring Otters.
They protected a 2-1 lead for almost 19 minutes, including a couple of big penalty kills, until James McEwan gave them some breathing room by rifling a slap shot from the high slot past Erie goaltender Jake Lawr.
“We limited a very good hockey team to some gritty chances. Dylan Strome was in the National Hockey League last week and DeBrincat has been one of the best goal scorers in this league for three years,” Skalde said.
Strome had the Erie goal.
The Storm plays in Peterborough on Saturday night.
