Thanks to two goals and an assist from Pius Suter as well as a whole lot of battling the Guelph Storm defeated the Owen Sound Attack by a 3-1 score on Friday night in front of 4,918 at the Sleeman Centre in a game with major playoff implications.

Heading into the divisional contest Guelph held a three point edge over Owen Sound for fourth place in the Western Conference which is the final spot for home ice advantage come playoff time. The Storm were given a boost as for the second game in a row a veteran forward returned from injury. This time overager Luke Cairns returned to the lineup after missing 20 games with mono. While mono can be a tough illness to return from due to energy loss it seemed to have the opposite effect on Cairns as he returned to action with several high energy shifts in the opening period as did many of the Storm players with a constant barrage of shots at Attack goaltender Jack Flinn. Guelph along with the help of two power play’s in the games opening 20 minutes out shot Owen Sound by a 21-13 margin but left the ice scoreless.

Owen Sound seemed to take control in the middle stanza as Thomas Schemitsch would open the scoring at 4:22 with his 11^th of the season thanks in large part to a heavily screened Justin Nichols who couldn’t see the shot. The Owen Sound goal had come just a couple minutes after Guelph killed a lengthy two man disadvantage with Tyler Bertuzzi and Jason Dickinson in the penalty box. Guelph would spend a lot of time in the penalty box during the second period as the Storm were assessed five minor penalties to Owen Sound’s one. The final two Storm penalties both appeared very questionable as first at 10:14 Jason Dickinson was called for holding during an arm in arm collision with an Attack player deep in the Owen Sound zone, Dickinson had the puck at the time. An even bigger head scratcher came at the 18:49 mark when Tyler Boston was also assessed a holding minor after he pushed an Attack player off the puck during an Owen Sound rush. Moments later during the Attack power play that ended the frame the building became incensed when an Attack player wrapped himself around Storm defenceman Phil Baltisberger’s leg away from the play.

The penalties left the Storm coaching staff very upset as head coach Bill Stewart not only had several choice words for the on ice officials but the off ice officials as well as the second period drew to a close.

The period didn’t end however before the Storm managed to tie the game as Pius Suter collected his 35^th of the season at 12:46 tucking in a Jason Dickinson rebound. The two shots on net during the play were two of just three for the entire period for the Storm while the Attack had put up twelve.

While many in the building were fuming over the Tyler Boston holding minor to begin the third period it eventually would help the Storm collect the winner. With the Storm killing off the final 49 seconds of the late second period penalty Pius Suter dumped the puck into the Attack zone, however Jack Flinn miss played the puck at the side of the net and a swift Suter was able to steal the disc and lift it over Flinn’s shoulder from a bad angle at the 19 second mark to give the Storm a 2-1 lead and Suter’s 36^th goal of the season.

The Storm appeared to have scored an insurance marker at 13:41 as the puck was shot into a mad scramble in front of the Attack goal. However as the puck was crossing the line Attack winger Jacob Busch pushed the Owen Sound net off its moorings. While it would cost Busch two minutes for delay of game it saved his team from going down two goals. In the end the Storm were unable to capitalize with the extra man.

Owen Sound was given one more opportunity with the man advantage with just 1:02 remaining in the third period when Robby Fabbri received a double minor for cross checking Santino Centorame hard into the boards behind the Attack goal. While Owen Sound managed to apply pressure down low they were never able to get anything towards the Storm goal as the Attack would register just two shots on net during the third period. Jason Dickinson would put the game away with an empty net goal with 16 seconds remaining to give the Storm the 3-1 victory.  Pius Suter ended his night collecting an assist to be in on all three Storm goals.

The win puts Guelph five points ahead of Owen Sound for 4^th place in the Western Conference in what could very well be the 4 vs 5 match up in the first round of the playoffs later this month.

Guelph hits the road for their final three road games of the regular season, first in Sarnia on Sunday afternoon before a pair of games on Thursday and Friday night in Windsor and Kitchener. Guelph returns home on Tuesday, March 17^th to face the Kitchener Rangers.

STORM NOTES:

• Guelph’s record improves to 35-23-2-2 for 74 points

• The London Knights won Friday night in Ottawa leaving the gap between London and Guelph for 3^rd place at 5 points, both teams have 6 games remaining

• Final shots on goal were 35-27 in favour of Guelph

• Owen Sound was 0 for 8 on the power play while Guelph went 0 for 5

• Pius Suter is on a 5 game points streak in which he has 6 goals and 4 assists for 10 points

• After collecting 11 goals in 11 games during the month of February, Suter already has 3 goals in 2 games during March.

• Suter’s 36 goals is 2^nd on the team behind only Tyler Bertuzzi’s 41

• Jason Dickinson is also on a 5 game points streak in which he has amassed 2 goals and 5 assists for 7 points

• Dickinson and Suter are tied for 2^nd place on the Storm points list with 64, Bertuzzi leads with 89

• Tyler Bertuzzi despite being the Storm’s goals, assists and points leader has been held pointless in his last 3 games and has only collected 1 goal in his last 7 games.

• Bertuzzi had collected 19 goals in his previous 18 games

• Guelph has won 5 of 7 games against Owen Sound this year including all 3 games at the Sleeman Centre

• Owen Sound returns to Guelph for their 8^th and final regular season meeting on Friday, March 20^th