The Guelph Storm got a lesson or two Friday night at the Sleeman Centre from the best in the West.
The locals were schooled in virtually every facet of the game as the Windsor Spitfires clinched first place in the Western Conference with a cakewalk 7-1 victory.
"They were playing to clinch tonight and we were playing like we were in awe of the first place team," said Storm coach George Burnett. "We got what we deserved."
"We didn't come to play tonight. That's not acceptable at home. It's not acceptable anywhere, but certainly at home," Burnett said.
"Our building's got some energy in it, finally, after a long time away and for us to play like that is not acceptable. Certainly we shouldn't be proud of that."
Special teams? Windsor scored on three of four chances. Guelph went zero for five.
Goaltending? Windsor's Mathias Onuska stopped 21 of 22 shots. Guelph's Owen Bennett was beaten seven times on just 27 shots.
Team defence? Windsor ground the Storm into the ice all night and had little trouble breaking out of their own end.
All in all, just a really bad night for the crimson and white.
Windsor led 2-0 before the game was eight minutes old and 3-1 after the first period. They added a pair in each of the final two frames. Twice they scored in the final minute of a period.
Luka Profaca had Guelph's only goal while Daniel D'Amico led the visitors with a hat trick.
A night that was even more disappointing considering the strong game Guelph played the night before in a 4-3 shootout loss in Windsor.
"We finished pretty strong last night in the third period and I would have anticipated that our energy and our excitement to play tonight would have been a lot better than it was," Burnett said.
"We got behind quick and our choices tonight were really unacceptable throughout the entire night. Bad penalties, poor compete .... it's probably best I don't say anything because it will sound like I'm making excuses, but really there aren't any."
Burnett was openly upset with the silly penalties his team took, but also frustrated with the inability to kill those penalties all of a sudden.
"(Penalties) do hurt, especially when we've gone from being one of the best penalty killing teams in the league to one that can't kill penalties ... certainly it was part of our plan to not take penalties tonight and all of our penalties were bad ones. They were stick penalties, they were from behind, they were inappropriate penalties for where we're at and where we are at with our lineup."
If there was any bright spot for the Storm is was the return of defenceman Ashton Reesor to the lineup. The overager had missed the past 13 games recovering from a broken jaw. He played last night with a full face shield.
Guelph plays in London Sunday and in Erie on Tuesday. They wrap up the regular season with a pair of home games next weekend, Friday against Kitchener and Saturday against Windsor.
