The don't ask "how" you won, they ask "if" you won.
Bottom line Monday afternoon at the Sleeman Centre was that the Guelph Storm came away with an important keep-us-in-the-playoff picture victory, 7-6 over the Sudbury Wolves.
With the two teams directly above them in the standings both losing Monday, the Storm now sits three points back of eighth-place Sault Ste. Marie, with Guelph holding three games in hand.
"We talked before the game that we thought this was the game that was going to get us in the playoffs," said Storm winger Charlie Paquette. "We plan on getting into the playoffs by us winning, not other teams losing."
Paquette continued his strong season with a hat trick against the Wolves in what was a chippy game that saw its fair share of highlights and lowlights. He now has 26 goals on the season, five more than last season.
"I didn't really have a goal (on how many he wanted to score) coming into the season. Maybe just try and surpass what I got last year," Paquette said. "That's not what I'm focused on."
Playing beside Jett Luchanko doesn't hurt.
Jett Luchanko had the primary assist on all three of Paquette's goals. Unofficially, Luchanko had a fourth helper when he cleanly won the face-off on the game winning goal.
"Sometimes I think he has eyes in the back of his head," Paquette said of Luchanko. "He was able to find me and I was lucky enough to put them in the back of the net.
Despite the pretty goals and happy conclusion, it wasn't all roses for the Storm.
It was a game where Guelph blew a 6-3 lead with under 11 minutes remaining in the third period when Sudbury scored a pair of power play goals then tied it on a shot from centre ice that somehow found its way through Storm goaltender Colin Ellsworth.
But with 41 seconds left in regulation, Sudbury's Donovan McCoy took a needless penalty after getting mixed up with Guelph's Lev Katzin as the two headed to the bench on line changes.
Four seconds into that power play, Katzin found Max Namestnikov at the side of the Sudbury net for the redirect into the Sudbury goal.
"Two points is two points at this point of the season. It was nice to see us get the result we were looking for tonight," said assistant coach Scott Simmonds.
"Everybody was engaged and that's all we're asking, for everybody to be engaged ... we were proud of the group effort tonight."
Namestnikov became public enemy number one in the first period when he knocked Sudbury's Rowan Henderson out of the game with a big open ice hit. The four officials gathered to discuss it after the next whistle, but there was no penalty on the play. Sudbury players were livid and spent a lot of time chasing Namestinikov after that, including after the final whistle, when the Wolves' Kieron Walton was given a five minute spearing major.
Namestnikov had two goals in the game. Jake Karabela and Ryan McGuire had the others.
"It was a playoff atmosphere tonight and it was good (for the young players) to get that experience and they'll be ready for it when we're in the first round," Paquette said.
It was 2-1 Gueph after one period and 4-2 Guelph after two.
Guelph is away this coming weekend in Sault Ste. Marie and Saginaw. Next home game is a Wednesday, Feb. 26, when the Barrie Colts visit.