Chris Marchese’s goal just 2:47 into overtime gave the Guelph Storm a 5-4 victory Sunday night in front of 3,336 at the Sleeman Centre as the Storm tied their western conference quarter final series with the Owen Sound Attack at one game a piece.

The opening 40 minutes of game two felt much like the opening 40 minutes of game one despite the fact that this time it was Guelph who took a 2-0 lead through the first period.

The Storm once again came out hitting with Tyler Bertuzzi and Givani Smith again making lives difficult for the Attack players. Robby Fabbri appeared to have put Guelph on the board with a power play goal near the 11 minute mark but the goal was waived off for goaltender interference. The Storm however were rewarded later on the same power play at 12:41 when Tyler Bertuzzi whacked the puck past Owen Sound net minder Jack Flinn at the side of the net after a tic tac toe play with Luke Cairns and Robby Fabbri for the 1-0 Guelph lead.

Just a few minutes later Storm captain Jason Dickinson recollected the puck after he had shot it into the legs of an Attack defender in the slot and snapped it past Flinn at 15:51 to give the Storm a two goal advantage heading into the second period with Guelph also leading the shot clock 9-7.

The wheels seemed to totally fall off for the Royal City in the middle stanza as Owen Sound exploded for three goals in the span of 3:18. First Santino Centorame managed to get a low shot past a sprawled Justin Nichols at 7:29 to cut the score to 2-1. Chris Bigras would then tie the game at 8:44 collecting an Erik Bradford pass and firing a laser past Nichols. Daniel Milne would end the scoring out burst adding to what would eventually be a four point night for him as he found the puck to the left of a sprawled Nichols and deposited it into a gaping cage for a 3-2 Attack lead at 10:47. Guelph would not register a shot on goal for the remainder of the period despite having a power play chance.

While the opening two periods may have followed nearly the same script as game one things changed in a big way for the final frame of regulation. Tyler Bertuzzi who is usually known for pretty goals took over the roll of garbage man cleaning up a Robby Fabbri rebound just 1:10 into the period to tie the game back up at three. Bertuzzi would complete the hat trick at 5:58 on the power play firing a shot past the short side of Flinn from the slot on a great pass from Luke Cairns behind the net.

The 4-3 Guelph lead would be short lived however as captain Jason Dickinson would be assessed a double minor for checking Owen Sound Attack overager Holden Cook from behind. With just 18 seconds remaining in the four minute penalty Kyle Platzer would fire a laser past a heavily screened Nichols at 11:13 to tie the game once again.

The teams traded dangerous looking chances in the final 20 seconds of regulation as first Kyle Platzer just put the puck wide of a sprawled out Nichols before Jack Flinn had to made a big save off a Storm rush with just three seconds left as the teams headed to overtime tied 4-4.

Overtime was not needed for long as the winner started with Owen Sound turning the puck over at the Storm blueline after a monster check by Marc Stevens on defenceman of the year candidate Chris Bigras. The turnover led to a 3 on 1 rush for the Storm with Chris Marchese firing a wrist shot between the blocker and pad of Flinn to give Guelph the 5-4 victory to tie the series.

Final shots on goal during the game were 36-27 in favour of Owen Sound as Justin Nichols responded with a solid game after being yanked early in the second period of Game 1.

Game’s 3 and 4 of the series now shift to the Bayshore Community Centre in Owen Sound on Tuesday and Wednesday with the start times set for 7:00PM both nights. The series will return to the Sleeman Centre on Saturday for Game 5 with a 7:00PM start.

STORM NOTES:

• In one night Tyler Bertuzzi equalled his goal output for the entire final month of the OHL regular season with three.

• The game was the first multi goal effort from Bertuzzi since February 11^th when he scored a pair in a 6-3 win in Erie

• Luke Cairns who returned to the lineup for the first time since March 17^th nearly equalled his career playoff point output with 3 assists on the night. Cairns had 1 goal & 2 assists in 5 career playoff games as a member of the Saginaw Spirit and 1 assist as a member of the Erie Otters

• It was the first multi point performance by Cairns in his playoff career

• Levi Tetrault made his OHL playoff debut as CJ Garcia was scratched due to illness

• Tyler Hill also returned to the lineup after being out since March 13^th with a lower body injury

• Chris Marchese had also scored an overtime winner for the Storm back on December 20^th against the Erie Otters

• Guelph only played 2 overtime games during last years march to the Memorial Cup. The first of which didn’t occur until game 1 of the OHL finals which was Guelph’s 16^th game of the playoffs.

• Guelph had a record of 1-1 in overtime games during the 2014 playoffs

• Guelph’s overtime record during the 2014-15 regular season was 6-2

• Guelph’s overtime record at the Sleeman Centre during 2014-15 was 4-2

• Guelph has now played 10 games against Owen Sound since the start of the 2014-15 regular season. The Storm have won 6 of the 10 games.

• The attendance of 3,336 was the smallest crowd to see a Storm game at the Sleeman Centre in 36 games thus far this season

• The previous attendance low was 3,415 on Sunday, December 14^th as the Storm fell 3-2 to the Oshawa Generals