It would have been easy to give the Guelph Storm a free pass Sunday at the Sleeman Centre.
Playing their third game in less than three days, including less than 24 hours after an overtime game win in Owen Sound, the Storm went up against the OHL's top team in the Ottawa 67's, a well-rested squad that didn't play Saturday.
But rather than submit to circumstance, the Storm turned in a solid effort, arguably the better effort, before coming out on the short end of a 5-3 game, with the final goal coming into an empty net.
"Fatigued today and a lot of adversity, but that's part of the league," said Storm coach Chad Wiseman. "But I'm proud of our effort today and I thought we deserved a better fate."
While the Storm might have been the better team, the 67's were the more efficient, making the most of some Storm mistakes, most notably a shorthanded breakaway goal in the second period by Brady Stonehouse and a Cooper Foster seeing-eye shot from a bad angle that somehow found a small space over the shoulder of Storm goaltender Dixon Grimes.
That put the Storm down 4-1.
But third period goals by Cedricson Okitundu and Braeden Bowman with plenty of time left in the third period made for an exciting finish that wasn't muffled until Stonehouse slid one into the empty net.
Guelph outshot Ottawa 29-20 on the afternoon.
Wiseman wasn't thrilled with the number of penalties his team took, even if Ottawa only connected on one of nine man-advantage situations.
"Whether we deserved all the penalties or not, you can't take that many penalties ... you just can't be in the box that much. Guys are playing extra minutes killing penalties and other guys aren't playing enough."
The Storm's Matt Poitras, who assisted on two of Guelph's goals, said the weekend was a positive one.
"In all three of those games we brought a good effort, even coming in here today on the tail end of a three in three. We gave ourselves a really good chance to win that game and outplayed a really good team."
Poitras said "no excuses," but it's tough getting home late at night then having to play a good team a few hours later.
"As a group I think we're all just buying into the system and doing the right thing. If we keep that up we should continue to win games.:
Jake Karabela had Guelph's other goal.
Storm goaltender Grimes was making his first start since Nov. 2. Wiseman said he's earned the opportunity, despite Jacob Oster being named first star the night before in Owen Sound.
"He comes to work every day, shows up on time and does the right things every day," Wiseman said of Grimes. "Oster played a great game last night, but it's a tough turnaround for a goalie to play a late game then come back and play again at two o'clock."
Guelph wraps up the pre-Christmas portion of the schedule with home games against Barrie and Sault Ste. Marie on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.
