George Burnett had no answers for the way his team played in the opening 20 minutes against the Sarnia Sting Wednesday night at the Sleeman Centre.
After what he called "the best two days of practice" the team has had all season, the Storm allowed four goals and trailed 4-1 after the opening period, eventually falling 5-3.
"It was a bad start. I don't have a whole lot to tell you," said Burnett.
"The disappointing thing for me is that I think we had the two best days of practice maybe all year long the last couple of days and to handle the puck the way we did and to make some of those decisions we did, it was quite surprising and unacceptable."
It was a horrible start for Guelph. They trailed 2-0 just five minutes into the game then had their spirits really broken when the Sting made it 4-1 with just half a second left on the clock in the first period.
Jacob Oster was beaten four times on 10 shots in the opening period.
After a scoreless second period, the Storm appeared to be on the comeback trail when goals by Matt Papais and Daniil Chayka made it 4-3 with just under 12 minutes left on the clock.
But then came a heartbreaker.
With a puck in no-man's land between them, Oster and defenceman Luka Profaca got their wires crossed. Oster hesitated, Profaca swiped a the puck, but the beneficiary was Sarnia's Theo Hill, who took advantage of the miscommunication and slid the puck into the wide-open net for his second goal of the match and a 5-3 lead.
"Poor communication. It was kind of indicative of the night," Burnett said of the botched play.
Anson Thornton made 36 saves in the Sarnia net. Burnett gave him full credit for his effort, but felt his team was trying to be a little too fine with its shooting.
"Even at 4-3 we had momentum. They didn't have much going since the beginning of the second period, but we have an interest in trying to score at the top of the net all the time. Shooting the puck high and wide and not making their goaltender work harder than he did."
Sasha Pastujov, who led the league in goals much of this season, was held scoreless and now has just one goal in his past six games.
"It's a sign of a team that battles some experience and some veteran presence. Those that we do have need to set a better tone for us, make better choices and set the right example. I'm not sure we've seen that in the last two or three hockey games," Burnett said.
Guelph hosts the Saginaw Spirit on Friday then plays in London on Saturday.
