If you're going to get taught a lesson, it might as well be at a time where a loss doesn't count in the standings.
The Mississauga Steelheads handed the Guelph Storm one Monday, showing them how hard work can trump skill as they handed the locals a 5-2 loss at the Sleeman Centre.
"I'm disappointed that we were outworked tonight, but in the big picture I think it will be advantageous to us that a young, hungry club came in here, hustled, worked and stayed with it," Storm coach George Burnett said.
"Our work's got to be a lot better, from top to bottom.... good lessons, and great to be learning them now rather than later," Burnett said.
Luka Profaca and Alexey Toropchenko scored the Guelph goals, both in the third period. Anthony Popovich and Tanner Wickware shared the goaltending duties, with Popovich allowing one goal and Wickware three.
Sam Meisenheimer and Michael Little each had a pair of goals for the Steelheads and Guelph native Matt Dunsmoor made 16 saves in the Mississauga net.
"The compete, the hustle, the shift length ... (Mississauga) played with a lot of pace tonight and there will be some good things from this, some good video."
The Storm planned on making several cuts later Monday night, with some younger players heading home in advance of school starting Tuesday.
"With school starting tomorrow I want to be fair to everybody," Burnett said. "Nothing out of the ordinary. Things we anticipated doing from Day 1."
Eight more Storm players head to National Hockey League training camps this week: Isaac Ratcliffe, Cedric Ralph, Nate Schnarr, Anthony Popovich, Dmitri Samorukov, Cam Hillis, Alexey Toropchenko and Liam Hawel. Ryan Merkley is already in San Jose for their camp.
Mississauga dressed seven rookies Monday, Guelph eight.Guelph has a pair of exhibition games remaining, Sept. 14 in Mississauga and Sept. 15 at home versus Hamilton.
