LONDON - It will go down as one of the greatest comebacks in Guelph Storm history.
They trailed the series 3-0 and fought back to force a Game 7.
They trailed 3-1 in the second period of that Game 7.
Then they kicked some ass.
The Storm scored five unanswered goals to complete the miraculous comeback and down the regular-season champion London Knights 6-3 in Game 7 Tuesday night at Budweiser Gardens.
They now move on to meet the Saginaw Spirit in the Western Conference final. That series starts Thursday in Saginaw.
"The first thing that came out of my mouth was 'we did it! We did it!'" said Storm captain Isaac Ratcliffe.
"It's indescribable. The resilience this team has, the character, the skill that we have. You put all those things together and we're unstoppable," said Ratcliffe, who scored both the game-tying and game-winning goals in the third period.
"It's pretty remarkable. I don't think there's too many teams that have done that," said Storm forward MacKenzie Entwistle of the comeback.
"Especially coming into this building with 10,000 screaming fans. This is not an easy building to play in and for us to come out with a win speaks a lot about this team."
Storm coach George Burnett said he's come back from being down 3-1 in a series before, but never 3-0.
"We're finding out that our character is strong and when we do things as a team good things can happen," Burnett said.
After Guelph took a 1-0 lead in the first period, the Knights took their two-goal lead by scoring three goals in a span of 3:04 early in the second period.
Then cue the comeback.
Nick Suzuki made it 3-2 before the middle frame was over.
Ratcliffe played a huge role in the comeback, scoring early in the third period to tie the game then scoring the eventual game winner 70 seconds later.
Entwistle poked home the puck to make it 5-3 then added an empty netter to ice it late in the game.
Entwistle's biggest contribution had nothing to do with his goals though.
He got the credit for noticing that following a London icing that didn't allow a line change, Knights' face off specialist Billy Moskal sneaked onto the ice to take the key draw deep in London's zone.
Entwistle pulled the alarm button and drew the attention of the officials, who agreed and ordered Moskal back to the bench in favour of Paul Cotter.
Cotter promptly lost a clean face off to Nick Suzuki and Ratcliffe fired home the tying goal.
It was arguably the turning point of the game.
"Moskal's good on draws. That's why they wanted him out there," Entwistle said. "Then everyone just started screaming."
Anthony Popovich, who couldn't really be blamed on any of the London goals, was outstanding again, making 31 saves.
Guelph also did what they had to do in the discipline department, allowing just three London power plays.
Game 1 of the conference final goes Thursday in Saginaw. Game 2 is Saturday in Saginaw. Games 3 and 4 will be in Guelph Monday and Wednesday. Game time is 7 p.m.
