You can teach a hockey team a lot of things, but how do you teach them to bury chances?
That's the challenge facing Guelph Storm coach Cory Sillman and his staff these days as the Storm continues to struggle putting the puck in the net.
Despite being down three regular defencemen, they turned in a very solid effort on home ice Friday, falling to the Windsor Spitfires 4-1 in a game that was really much closer than the score indicated.
"It felt a lot closer than that," Storm coach Cory Stillman said. "A 4-1 game I thought should have been a 2-1 game.
Windsor's final goal came into an empty net.
"That first period was probably the best start we've had this season, then we got into penalty trouble. We did a good job defending (the penalty kill), but it wears on you. I think we killed five-and-a-half minutes in the second period. The game starts to separate from there."
Windsor, the surprise of the OHL so far, improved to 7-1-1-0 on the season. Guelph fell to 3-4.
The difference? Windsor buried more chances.
The Spitfires had a goal that was batted out of mid-air, and another chipped over goaltender Brayden Gillespie's shoulder after an errant shot went off the end boards and straight out to a waiting Spitfire.
"We've had opportunities," Stillman said when asked how you teach players to finish. "Those are habits that start in practice, making sure you hit the net and making sure you hang around the net. Make the goalie make the save, get the puck on the net."
Guelph played an excellent first and third period. In between was a second period muddied by a number of penalties that muffled momentum and created a reliance on a handful of players while others sat for extended periods.
It was 1-1 after one period, with Windsor scoring two unanswered goals in the second frame, one of them on the power play.
Guelph was definitely the better team in the third period, but couldn't beat Joey Costanzo in the Spits net.
Guelph has scored 21 goals in its first seven games of the season, second lowest in the OHL.
With Jett Luchanko with the Philadelphia Flyers and a host of rookies still getting used to the pace and size of the OHL, it's up to the team's older players to carry the offensive load. And while many chances were created Friday, the finishing touch just wasn't there.
Carter Stevens had the Guelph goal, his first in the OHL, tipping a Jake Karabela shot on the power play.
Guelph played without just five defencemen, one of those being call-up Dawson Morris, who played plenty and played well.
Will Haley is out four to six weeks with a broken wrist, Quinn Beauchesne is day-to-day with a lower body injury and Daniil Skvortsov was ill, as was forward Wil McFadden.
Guelph hosts Kitchener Saturday at 4 p.m. Sunday night they play in Kitchener.
