Some nights you just have to tip your cap to the other guy.
That other guy Friday night at the Sleeman Centre was David Egorov, the Brantford Bulldogs 18-year-old goaltender who turned in a brilliant performance in defeating the Guelph Storm 4-1.
Guelph fired 39 shots at the Bulldogs net but didn't solve Egorov until Jett Luchanko put one just inside the post to make it a 3-1 game with 3:59 left in regulation. Brantford iced it with an empty netter.
"For sure, he played really well," Luchanko said of Egorov's performance. "I thought we had a good game and had lots of chances. We just had to get a little more past him and get executing on our shots.
"I really think we had the momentum for most of the game, we just had to execute more. But we've got a positive group, hopefully we can learn from that. Any game, any outcome you learn something from it."
It was a 2-0 game until 6:01 left in the third when the Bulldogs Noah Nelson buried one from the slot to relieve the steady pressure Guelph mounted most of the game's final 40 minutes.
"He played well. We thought we had good game with a lot of chances," said Storm assistant coach Scott Simmonds.
"We had the momentum for most of the game, we just have to execute on our chances."
Simmonds said there was some frustration setting in, but the team is a positive group. They learn and they build on every game.
"That's the cool thing about having such a young team," Simmonds said.
The Storm had 33 shots on net over the final 40 minutes, even though they had to kill off a five minute major penalty to Max Namestinikov, who got tossed for a slew foot.
Brantford led 2-0 after one period on a pair of goals by Jake O'Brien, including a week sliding puck that somehow made its way through Storm goaltender Zach Jovanovski, who otherwise turned in a solid performance, making 20 saves.
Brantford had just 10 shots on net over the final 40 minutes, despite the five-minute power play.
Guelph lost Namestnikov for half the game and perhaps more as the league will review the slew foot. They also lost defenceman Daniil Skvortsov, who left the game midway with an upper body injury.
Guelph plays in Oshawa Sunday. Next home game is Friday when Sarnia visits.