Storm surge past Wolves in overtime with late rally

Matthew Poitras led the Guelph Storm to a 5-4 overtime victory over Sudbury Wolves at the Sleeman Centre on Sunday.

Poitras scored the game-winner in overtime when he capitalized on a breakaway opportunity by putting the puck through the pads of Sudbury goaltender Kevyn Brassard. It was Poitrais’s fourth point of the game and his seventh career game-winning goal. He’s up to 54 points on the season, which is a career-high.

With the victory, Guelph’s record improves to 20-20-4-1 and they remain in seventh in the Western Conference, Sudbury falls to 18-20-4-2, staying in the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference. The Storm are 7-2-1-0 in their last 10, the Wolves are 4-3-1-2.

Nick DeGrazia opened the game’s scoring late in the first period with a wrist shot that went past the blocker side of Guelph goalie Brayden Gillespie. DeGrazia is up to 20 goals in 2022-23, good enough for second on the Wolves.

With three minutes remaining in the second period Isaac Enright scored Guelph’s first goal of the game when he wired a wrist shot top shelf. The goal was Enright’s first as a member of the Storm and his second of the season.

Sudbury took charge of the game early in the third period by scoring three goals in just 3:02.

First, it was Nathan Villeneuve, who let a shot fly from the high-slot area over the shoulder of Gillespie. It was Villeneve’s seventh goal of his rookie campaign, he’s up to 11 points on the year.

Kieran Walton took advantage of a wrap around pass from former Guelph Storm forward Chase Coughlan with a one timer just 30 seconds after Villeneuve’s goal. Walton is also up to seven goals in his rookie season with 12 points.

Ethan Larmand netted Sudbury’s final goal of the game when he deflected a shot by Nick DeGrazia on the power play. It was Larmand’s ninth goal of the season and his 25th in the Ontario Hockey League.

Down by three goals Guelph had to strike back quickly and that’s exactly what they did.

Michael Buchinger found the back of the net with a wrist shot after a sweet cross-crease pass from Matthew Poitras. The goal was Buchinger’s tenth of the season, the St.Louis Blues prospect has goals in three straight, adding three assists during the streak.

Gavin Grudner took advantage of a stretch pass from Jake Murray that led him to a breakway opportunity for Guelph’s third marker of the game. It was Grudner’s second goal of the season.

Jake Karabela found the back of the net after taking a back-handed feed from Cooper Walker with just 1:20 remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime. Karabela has scored 14 goals in 2022-23 and has recorded seven points in his last six games.

Matthew Poitras sealed the deal in Guelph’s walk off win in overtime with just 33 seconds remaining in overtime.

Next Up:

The Storm are back in action Thursday morning at 11:00am in Erie. Then they’ll have a pair of rivalry games against the Kitchener Rangers next weekend, with the first at the Aud on Friday night at 7:30pm. They’ll take on their highway 7 rivals again at home on Sunday, February 5 at 2:00pm, tickets to that game can by found by clicking here.

Game Notes: 

Sudbury Wolves 4 at Guelph Storm 5 (OT) – Status: Final OT
Sunday, January 29, 2023 – Sleeman Centre

Sudbury 1 0 3 0 – 4
Guelph 0 1 3 1 – 5

1st Period-1, Sudbury, DeGrazia 20 (Walton), 17:48. Penalties-Robinson Sby (high sticking), 5:02; Pharand Sby (boarding, roughing), 10:49; Enright Gue (roughing), 10:49.

2nd Period-2, Guelph, Enright 2 (Poitras, Karabela), 17:00. Penalties-Collins Sby (interference), 6:05; Robinson Gue (holding), 14:22; Toure Sby (slashing), 14:34.

3rd Period-3, Sudbury, Villeneuve 7 (Konyen, DeGrazia), 3:05. 4, Sudbury, Walton 7 (Coughlan, Yearwood), 3:35. 5, Sudbury, Larmand 9 (DeGrazia, Collins), 6:07 (PP). 6, Guelph, Buchinger 10 (Poitras), 8:37. 7, Guelph, Grundner 2 (Murray, Sandhu), 13:28. 8, Guelph, Karabela 14 (Walker, Poitras), 18:40 (EN). Penalties-Paquette Gue (slashing), 4:29.

OT Period-9, Guelph, Poitras 12   4:29. Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Sudbury 8-8-9-2-27. Guelph 11-11-10-2-34.
Power Play Opportunities-Sudbury 1 / 2; Guelph 0 / 4.
Goalies-Sudbury, Brassard 2-2-1-2 (33 shots-29 saves). Guelph, Gillespie 7-2-2-1 (27 shots-23 saves).
Timeouts — Timeout 00:30 Sudbury@13:35, Timeout 00:30 Guelph@18:00
A-4,186
Referees-Drew Jackson (21), Hillary Brennan (6).
Linesmen-Ryan Cadwell (82), Scott Lawson (98).