Another great effort might not have given the Guelph Storm their just reward Sunday afternoon, but it will go a long way to building their confidence.
Guelph took a 2-0 lead into the second half of their game against the Kitchener Rangers, only to see their Highway 7 rivals chip away and tie it up before the end of the second then win it in overtime.
Cameron Reid delivered the dagger at 2:30 of extra time, finishing off a two-on-one break thanks to a perfect feed from Jack Pridham just seconds after Guelph failed to capitalize on its own two-on-one at the other end of the ice.
"That's the hockey gods, right?" said Storm coach Cory Stillman. "We had our chance with a two-on-one from the red line in, they come back, make a pass over a stick or through a stick and they score.
"But the big thing for us was to get a point and these last two games, against top teams, we've shown we can compete with them."
Sunday's match-up was a heck of a hockey game, with both teams showing how the game should be played at this level.
Tight checking, some big hits, technically-sound play by both teams in all three zones and great goaltending by both Kitchener's Jackson Parsons and Guelph's Brayden Gillespie, the latter making a save-of-the-year candidate in the second period with a diving trapper stop on what looked like a sure Rangers goal.
"Great, great goaltending by BG this weekend," Stillman said. "He gave us a win the other night (Friday against Windsor) and he gave us a chance here today, especially in that first period when we were getting outshot and dominated.
"A great effort by him and a great effort by the team. But we're playing against a team that knows how to win hockey games, and that's what they did."
Stillman said it was a competitive, hard hockey game, and the referees let the two teams play, "which was nice to see, with only each team have one penalty."
"Low scoring. A battle game. Playoff style hockey," the coach said.
"If we can eliminate our down parts of games to a couple of shifts in a period, I think we'll come away with a few more wins come the end of the season."
Kitchener out-shot Guelph 35-29.
Goals by rookies Carter Stevens and Daniil Skvortsov in the first period put Guelph up 2-0, Trent Swick and Justin Botteneau tied it up.
Guelph's back end was buoyed by the return of minute-eating rearguard Rowan Topp, out since Oct. 26 with a lower body injury.
The Storm is in Brampton Wednesday for an 11 a.m. school day game then hosts Owen Sound Friday night.
