Two points in front of the home crowd against your arch rival is always nice, but Guelph Storm coach George Burnett realizes his team has a ways to go yet.
One of the areas they definitely need to improve on is its on-ice discipline, as a number of Storm players spent time in the penalty box because of post-whistle scrums and yapping.
"We certainly have to clean up our discipline," Storm coach George Burnett said.
"There's things as a team that you can do. The talk is cheap. Obviously we want guys to support one another and protect one another, but regardless who initiates it, in a one-goal or two-goal hockey game, why put that much pressure on your goaltender or your penalty killers by taking questionable-type penalties?" Burnett said.
"The stuff around the benches, the after-whistle stuff, those are just a waste of energy in my mind. If we're going to be a good team we've got to clean those things up."
Captain Isaac Ratcliffe was one of the worst offenders on the weekend.
He took unsportsmanlike conduct penalties Sunday and Friday and served a 10-minute misconduct for complaining to the referee in Owen Sound on Saturday.
"Yesterday, sitting in the penalty box for 10 minutes watching the team start the third period down two goals, it's tough. That's just smarter decisions on my part that I have to make," Ratcliffe said.
"A guy like myself likes to play pretty physical, but I need to control that a little bit more," Ratcliffe said.
The Storm downed the Kitchener Rangers 5-2 before 4,000 fans at the Sleeman Centre Sunday afternoon, with Isaac Ratcliffe and Nate Schnarr each netting a pair of goals.
It saved what could have been a terrible weekend, with the team losing on Friday night in Kitchener and Saturday night in Owen Sound.
It was 2-2 after the first period, but Schnarr scored a breakaway goal 35 seconds into the second period to give Guelph the lead for good.
Guelph outshot Kitchener 42-33. Owen Lalonde had the home side's other goal, his first of the year, with Storm netminder Anthony Popovich making a number of big saves in the game.
Dmitri Samorukov chipped in with two assists.
Two of the Storm's goals came on the power plan and they dominated the face-off circle with a 49-26 advantage.
"It was good to find a way to get the two points today, but there's a tremendous amount of improvement and detail that needs to be improved upon if we want to be considered a good hockey club," Burnett said.
Guelph hosts Erie on Friday and Sault Ste. Marie on Sunday.
