The Guelph Storm fell behind early Friday night at the Sleeman Centre and then game plan went out the window.
Three of the first six shots the Oshawa Generals took on Storm goaltender Liam Herbst beat him and a team sport became a lot of individual efforts for the Storm as they went on to lose 6-2.
“I thought we started with some jump but right away we’re in the hole and then the structure goes away and individuality comes in,” Storm coach Jarrod Skalde said.
He was disappointed, given that the team had a good week in practice and was coming off two big road victories last weekend.
“I had no problem with the energy or the effort at the start, but this team, when it gets down, has a real hard time finding that groove.
“I realize that for some of the guys it’s out of the fact they want to make a difference and change things, but it doesn’t work. One guy starts doing it then other guys start doing it and it just goes down hill.”
Medric Mercier’s long shot beat a screened Liam Herbst to open the scoring 1:15 into the game and by the 12:46 mark it was 3-0.
Skalde said he considered giving Herbst the hook at that point but wanted to reward him for his three consecutive solid starts prior to Friday.
“One hundred per cent. He had a heck of a week and I thought ‘let’s see if he can fight through this’ and unfortunately that didn’t happen,” Skalde said.
Herbst was eventually pulled after the fifth
Cedric Ralph made it 3-1 early in the second period, but
Garrett McFadden had the other Storm goal.
The Storm will play in
