Guelph snap winless streak, defeat Stratford

Posted on November 5, 2017 by Scott Ludwig — Leave a comment

If ever a team needed a victory it was the Guelph Hurricanes. Winless in their past eight games, the Hurricanes had not won a game in exactly one month. On Sunday at Sleeman Centre the home team got that victory, with it snapping the streak over one of the league leading teams.

The Stratford Warriors were the opponent who began the month-long drought for Guelph on October 5 winning in double overtime. They were also the same team who won at Sleeman last Thursday 7-2, a game that was competitive for the first 40 minutes.

Goaltender Trenton McGrail got the start Sunday and turned in his best effort of the season. The Hurricanes offense did its job and the result was a 5-1 victory.

Liam Buckley scored the opening goal of the game at 8:25, his first goal of the season. That is the way the first period ended. A three minute stretch in the second frame would prove to be the game difference with Ryan George, Brett Hunter and Tyler Harrison scoring to give the Canes a 4-0 lead.

Stratford would get on the scoreboard with a power play goal two minutes into the third. The Warriors would continue to pressure the entire period, but could not beat McGrail, who made 44 saves in the game, stopped 25 shots in the period. At 10:10 Bradley Smith would score the final goal of the game, his third of the season.

Next weekend the Hurricanes (7-10-1-2) will play a home-and-home series with the Waterloo Siskins (10-6-0-1). Game one will be Saturday night 7:30 PM at Sleeman Centre. Sunday afternoon the two teams will move to the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex with a 1:30 PM start.