You live by the sword, you die by the sword.
For a good chunk of this early season any success the Guelph Storm has had revolved around solid goaltending and excellent special teams. The good goaltending is still there, as most nights these days Brayden Gillespie is their best player, but the special teams have suddenly started sputtering.
A rare Wednesday night game at the Sleeman Centre saw the London Knights score four power play goals and the Storm score just once on eight power plays as the green and gold skated to a 5-2 victory.
Not only did then not produce on the power play, they surrendered several good shorthanded scoring chances to the Knights.
"The most disappointing thing was how many opportunities we gave up on the power play," Storm coach Chad Wiseman said.
"We had some decent looks, but we were on the wrong side of the puck on our power play and we gave up five odd-man rushes just on our power play alone."
Gillespie made three breakaway saves on the night, two of them with Guelph on the power play.
"We have to be better," Wiseman said. "We've had success in the past and we just have to get back to what was working before. When things aren't going your way you can't got on your own script, you have to get the train back on the tracks, so to speak."
Teams are definitely making adjustments. The Storm power play was ranked tops in the league most of the season. It's currently fourth.
"At the end of the day you have to find other options. You can't be a one-trick pony," Wiseman said.
Despite being outplayed most of the game by the Knights, the Storm found themselves with some life midway through the third period when a Jake Karabela power play goal made it a 3-2 game.
That put some energy into the team and the fans and a tying goal seemed like a real possibility.
But 1:45 after Karabela had got them within a goal, Storm forward Justin DeZoete ran London's Kaeden Johnston into the boards from behind at centre ice, resulting in a five-minute major.
Oliver Bonk scored seconds into that major, his second of the game, and any hope of a comeback was gone.
"The penalty was kind of icing on the cake for how the whole night went for our group," Wiseman said.
WIseman was asked if he needs to talk to individual players after penalties like the one DeZoet took, or if they know.
"It depends on the situation. But they know. And sometimes it's not words that you need to utilize to let them know it was a poor decision or a bad penalty.
"We've got to clean that up. We can't afford to be in the box that often."
In three games against the Knights this season, Guelph has been outscored 13-3.
Hunter McKenzie had Guelph's other goal and Brayden Gillespie made 24 saves, three of them on breakaways.
Bonk had three points for London, as did Easton Cowan, all assists.
Guelph hosts the Niagara IceDogs on Friday.
