Hockey can be a crazy, crazy game.
It was another wild one at the Sleeman Centre Friday night.
The Guelph Storm trailed by four goals heading into the third period before rallying to tie the game, only to lose it in overtime, falling 6-5 to the Flint Firebirds.
It was the Storm's eighth consecutive loss, four of which have come in either overtime or a shootout.
"I told the boys after the game that if we played the whole game like we did in the third period we probably would have won 10-0," said the Storm's Isaac Ratcliffe, who led the comeback with a third-period hat trick.
"Who knows. These last eight games have been rough for us," said Ratcliffe, adding that maybe the team needs to try something different in the way it prepares for the game to avoid the bad starts.
"Once we get going, we're hot and we're a team that can compete with anyone, but we just need to bring that for the full 60 minutes," Ratcliffe said.
As good as they were in the third, Guelph was terrible for 40 minutes, as the Firebirds, the second-worst record in the OHL, led 3-0 just 7:28 into the game.
Keegan Stevenson got Guelph on the board just before the end of the first to make it 3-1, but the visitors added two unanswered goals in the second period.
Cue the comeback, as Guelph scored four times in just over nine minutes in that third period, two of the goals coming on the power play.
The Storm outshot the Firebirds 19-4 in the third.
"Once we see things start to go our way, everyone gets a little jump in their step and that's when pucks start going in for us," Ratcliffe said. "We just need to do that the whole game."
Jalen Smereck won it for the Firebirds, jamming in the puck just inside the post seconds after the Storm's Barret Kirwin came within an inch of getting a breakaway that could have ended it at the other end of the ice.
It was a rough night for the Guelph Storm goaltenders.
Anthony Popovich started and was pulled in the first period after allowing three goals on just six shots. Nico Daws took over and allowed three goals on 19 shots, including a couple of stinkers.
Guelph played three men short, with defenceman Dmitri Samorukov serving the first of a two-game suspension for last week's slew foot against Mississauga and Cam Hillis and Tag Bertuzzi both out with injuries.
Their busy weekend continues Saturday with an afternoon game in Owen Sound, then home Sunday afternoon against the Kitchener Rangers in another 2 p.m. start.
