Liam Herbst could have caved.
He could have let a first period goal by Owen Sound’s Nick Suzuki – banked in off his leg from behind the end line – get inside his head and affect his play the rest of the night.
But he didn’t.
Instead the Guelph Storm overage goaltender did the opposite, he used it as fuel for a brilliant performance the rest of the night, making 41 saves as the Storm downed the Owen Sound Attack 3-1 in front of 3,658 at the Sleeman Centre.
“It was a misread on my behalf and a smart play by their player,” Herbst said.
“I did a good job. I just put it behind me. Once it goes in you can’t do anything to take it back out. I just wanted to refocus and do the best job possible from that point on.”
Herbst said a goalie has to look ahead in a game, not at what just happened.
“Tonight after that went in, I just said ‘forget about it’ and give my best effort.”
Storm coach Jarrod Skalde gave credit where credit was due.
“There was some amazing saves in the second period, but especially in the third,” Skalde said of Herbst’s performance.
“I talked to Herbie last week. I told him he’s our guy. He’s the guy we count on and the guy we’re going to have to count on,” the Storm coach said.
“Herbie’s had some highs and lows here already, but he’s our guy.”
Providing most of the offence was Givani Smith, once again looking like a man amongst boys at times in scoring a pair of second period goals, including a shorthanded breakaway at 11:08 of the second that stood up as the game winner.
Nate Schnarr had Guelph’s other goal, an insurance tally at 3:58 of the third.
After that the Storm, who got better as the game went on Friday after being outworked by Owen Sound in the first period, circled the wagons and held on.
That wagon circling included four minutes at a manpower disadvantage at the end of the third period, both due to a penalty and the fact the Attack pulled goaltender Michael McNiven with 3:28 left in the game.
“We just did a great, great job of grinding it out at the end of the game. It was a great effort by the guys,” Herbst said.
“In that first period they beat us to every puck, we didn’t win a loose puck out there,” said Skalde.
The coach was also applying some tough love on Friday, benching winger Jake Bricknell for the entire third period after he took a bad penalty in the offensive zone late in the second frame.
“Offensive zone penalties: we’ve seen enough of those. We’ve seen that movie before … we just cannot be going to the box in situations like that,” Skalde said.
James McEwan left the game in the third period after taking a shot to the mouth. He needed repairs but was reportedly “okay.”
Guelph hosts the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds on Sunday afternoon.
Boxscore: Guelph 3 Owen Sound 1
