On the brink of playoff elimination, the Guelph Storm were looking for some heroes Thursday night and they found them in an unlikely place.
The third line of Valentin Zhugin, Charlie Paquette and Ryan McGuire, held pointless in the first three games of their series against the Sarnia Sting, combined for three goals and six points as the Storm extended its season with a thrilling 5-4 victory over the Sting at the Sleeman Centre.
Game 5 in the best-of-seven series goes Friday night in Sarnia. If the Storm can force Game 6, it goes Sunday afternoon in Guelph.
It was a thriller. Guelph saw a 4-1 lead become 4-3 in the third period, then following an empty net goal by Cooper Walker, Sarnia scored again to make it 5-4 with 35 seconds left.
But the locals held on, sending most of the 4,752 in attendance home happy.
"We've just got to do the same thing tomorrow. Play the same way, win the game and bring it back here," said Paquette.
The truculent Storm winger had the Gordie Howe hat trick: scoring on a nice pass from Zhugin, setting up Zhugin for one of his goals and engaging Sarnia defenceman Ethan Ritchie in a spirited and bloody scrap near centre ice in the second period after Paquette delivered a huge hit on one of Ritchie's teammates.
"In the playoffs you just want to be a rough, tough team. I hit someone, someone came at me. I found Zhugi and he scored on an unbelievable shot, then Zhugi found me and I couldn't have missed that one if I tried," Paquette said in a synopsis of his night.
"But it was more of a team effort. We all worked together, we all did our jobs and it turned out the way we wanted it to."
Storm goaltender Patrick Leaver did what he does best, battled for 60 minutes in a 24-save performance.
"I'm always putting up a fight in there. I think my compete level is one of my strongest attributes and I'm just doing it for the boys out there," Leaver said.
"The boys stepped up for me when I needed them most and I stepped up for them. It's playoffs, up and down, but we find a way."
He may look unorthodox at times, and let in the odd iffy goal, but he also made some spectacular saves, including one on a cutting Sasha Pastujov late in regulation to prevent the tying goal.
Leaver also had some ringing ears, as Sarnia hit the post on three occasions.
Leaver said Sarnia is probably a bit more aware of what the Storm is capable of now.
"I think they're probably on their heels now. They were expecting a little easier series, so I think we've got some momentum, we've pushed back a bit and we can try and steal a win in their barn then come back here."
