A pair of goals from former Guelph Storm member Adam Craievich helped power the Ottawa 67’s past the Guelph Storm by a score of 6-2 Friday night in front of a crowd of 4,608 at the Sleeman Centre as the Storm dropped their sixth game in a row to go along with nine losses in their last ten games.

The game started out very positively for the Storm with Nicolas Sicoly banging in a rebound just 1:05 into the opening frame to give the Storm an early 1-0 advantage. Following the goal the Storm kept the pressure on the 67’s and generated several dangerous chances on 67’s netminder Leo Lazarev including a CJ Garcia shot that rang off the post. The Storm unfortunately could not captialize again before Ottawa found the back of the net early on courtesy of the teams leading scorer Dante Salituro at 5:40.

The Storm overall played a solid opening frame which saw the teams knotted at one goal a piece before the bottom began to fall out early in the middle stanza.

Artur Tyanulin scored his 12^th of the season at 1:48 before Nathan Todd collected his 14^th via the power play with a beautiful shot that beat Michael Giugovaz high at 5:13 to give Ottawa a 3-1 lead. The Storm would show some life when Brock Philips collected his 4^th of the year after tipping a Garrett McFadden point shot during a power play at 12:45. Philips nearly tied the game seconds later when Sicoly who had collected the second assist on the goal moments before fed Philips in the slot but unfortunately he would be denided his second of the game thanks to the pad of Lazarev. The 67’s would regain their two goal lead late in the period when Adam Craievich swept the puck past Michael Giugovaz much to the delight of the former Storm who had only scored two goals in 57 previous games this season with Ottawa.

The final period would be all 67’s as they added to their lead with Jeremiah Addison scoring his 26^th of the campaign at 7:04 with an assist from Guelph native Austen Keating who had a large cheering section in attendance. Just over a minute later at 8:20 Adam Craievich would complete the scoring with his second of the evening tipping home a point shot from Jacob Middleton who collected his third assist of the game on the tally.

Ottawa would cruise to a 6-2 victory as with the two points the 67’s vaulted from 7^th to 4^th in a very tight eastern conference. Michael Giugovaz struggled in the loss allowing 6 goals on 25 shots. Giugovaz also took a pair of delay of game penalties as he fired the puck out of play twice in the span of just 2:12 during the second period, luckily Ottawa was unable to score on either of those power plays. Brock Philips on the other hand seemed to have a very positive game, in addition to the goal followed by the near goal Philips was a wrecking ball on the ice laying out several grade A hits on the mostly large 67s roster.

In the end however the Storm was again find themselves in the loss coloumn as now their “magic number” for clinching the first overall pick in the 2016 OHL Priority Selection is now 9. If the Sudbury Wolves gain 9 points or the Guelph Storm lose 9 points among the 16 that are still up for grabs over their final 8 games the Storm will pick first overall in the draft for the first time since they selected Jeff O’Neil in 1992.

The Storm will try to snap their six game losing skid on Saturday when they make their first ever visit to First Ontario Centre (formerly known as Copps Coliseum) in Hamilton to take on the Bulldogs for a 7PM start. The Storm return to the Sleeman Centre on Sunday to play host to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds at 2PM.

STORM NOTES:

• Guelph’s overall record falls to 12-42-4-2

• Guelph’s home record falls to 9-19-1-1

• The Storm finish the home portion of their eastern conference schedule with a record of 2-7-0-1

• The Storm have an overall record of 3-13-1-2 against eastern conference opponents this season

• Both Guelph and Ottawa were 1 for 6 on the PP

• Both teams finished with 25 shots on net

• James McEwan had a game high 5 shots on goal

• McEwan led the way in the faceoff cirlce going 16 for 25 while Nick Deakin-Poot was a solid 8 for 13

• Adam Craievich a member of the 2014 OHL Championship Storm squad’s two goals in this game matched his entire goal output in 57 previous games this season with the 67’s, he now has 4 goals and 11 assists in 2015-16

• James McEwan continues to lead the Storm in goals with 23 and points with 43

• Garrett McFadden leads the team in assists with 26

• The Storm dressed a full roster of 18 skaters and 2 goaltenders for the first time since February 12^th vs Sarnia

• The only Storm scratches were Jacob Harris and Kyle Rhodes who are both done for the season with injuries.

• Harris has continued to act as an assistant coach on the Storm bench

• The Storm lost their season series with Ottawa going 0-2 having lost 4-1 in the nations capital back on November 28