A trio of goals from Andrew Mangiapane capped off by a short handed breakaway marker helped the Barrie Colts power past the Guelph Storm by a score of 5-1 Saturday night in front of a crowd of 3,971 at the Barrie Molson Centre as the Colts Kevin Lebanc’s 3 assists lofted the OHL’s leading scorer past the 100 point barrier.

Hometown native Bradley Van Schubert found himself in the rare position of starting goaltender for this game, just his third start since fellow netminder Michael Giugovaz returned from suspension in late November. Unfortunately for Van Schubert on this night the defence in front of him didn’t exaclt match the performance that he gave in the crease.

After an impressive series of saves by Van Schubert during a short 5 on 3 advantage for the Colts, Mangiapane would open the scoring digging the puck away from two Storm defenders along the boards and walked right up to Van Schubert untouched to snap the puck under the blocker for the 1-0 lead at 15:20. Not long after it appeared that Storm defender Brock Philips would tussle with the Colts Cameron Lizotte, however after Lizotte dropped his gloves Philips would not respond in kind drawing the ire of the Colts faithful.

Despite being being outplayed through more than the first half of the game the Storm managed to hang on and continute to be down by just a goal getting their chances at world junior goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood who turned aside all chances. The game seemed to begin to unravel for Guelph however late in the second period when off a faceoff in the Storm end the Colts trio of Mangiapane, Kevin Lebanc and Julius Nattinen would connect on a pretty passing play leaving Van Schubert no chance as Manigapane collected his second goal of the evening for a 2-0 Barrie lead at 12:26. Lebanc who collected his second assist of the night on the play also hit the 100 point mark on the season with the helper. Before the night was over Lebanc would collect one more assist to bring his season long total to 33 goals and 68 assists for 101 points through just 50 games.

Just over 2 minutes after the historic marker the Colts extended their lead as Anthony Stefano slipped the puck through the Storm defence to a streaking Giordano Finoro who lofted the puck over Van Schubert for the 3-0 Barrie advantage through two periods. Finoro who had just collected his third tally of the season almost scored seconds later if not for the solid goaltending of Van Schubert.

Like Friday night against Sarnia the Storm finally found themselves on the board early in the third period when a Givani Smith shot from far out was redirected past Blackwood by Matthew Hotchkiss in the slot to cut the lead to 3-1. The Storm were given a huge opportunity to bring the score to within one with Dylan Sadowy in the penalty box for hooking, but the Storm power play quickly turned into a nightmare that would finish off any doubt in this contest.

Just 11 seconds into the Storm man advantage Julius Nattinen would sneak past Storm captain and former Colt CJ Garcia before recieving a pass from Kevin Lebanc along the wall. Nattinen made no mistake in alone on Van Schubert to restore the three goal lead for Barrie. Just 26 seconds later Anthony Stefano would find Mangiapane who had nobody within 30 feet of him as his breakway led to his third goal of the evening and the eventual 5-1 final score in favour of the Colts.

Van Schubert who is still winless this season with a record of 0-12-1-0 deserved a better fate on this night as he stopped 30 of 35 shots in the loss. At the other end Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 34 of 35 Storm shots to earn third star honours. Lebanc’s 3 assists including his 100^th point earned him second star while the trio of goals by Mangiapane put up atop the three star rankings.

The Guelph Storm will return home for a rare Monday afternoon game at the Sleeman Centre as they entertain the OHL leading Erie Otters for a Family Day maintenee at 2PM.

STORM NOTES:

• Guelph’s overall record drops to 11-35-4-2

• Guelph’s road record falls to 3-19-3-1

• Guelph was 0 for 5 on the PP while the Colts went 0 for 6

• Thanks to injuries and call ups not being available the Storm found themselves with only 11 forwards and 5 defenceman in the lineup Saturday night

• Garrett McFadden had a game high 8 shots on goal

• Captain CJ Garcia and Givani Smith both returned to the Molson Centre for the first time since being traded to the Storm from Barrie in January 2015

• Luke Burghardt who had a 3 game goal streak snappe lead the way for the Storm in the faceoff circle going 10 for 18

• The loss was the first for the Storm at the Barrie Molson Centre since a 2-0 defeat on February 23, 2013

• The Sudbury Wolves regulation loss on Saturday night to Sault Ste. Marie leaves the Storm still 6 points behind the Wolves for last in the OHL

• The Storm have a record of 1-5-1-1 on the road against Eastern Conference opponents this season

• The only Eastern Conference away games left for the Storm this season are on Saturday, February 27 in Niagara and Saturday, March 5 in Hamilton

• The Storm have an overall record of 4-11-1-1 against Eastern Conference oppoents this season

• The Storm split their two game season series with the Barrie Colts having beaten the Colts 5-2 at the Sleeman Centre on January 8^th