GRANDE PRAIRIE, AB
November 30, 2019
Coach Matt Keillor called his club?s 3-2 overtime win over the Spruce Grove Saints on Friday night a ?character win?.
Jarin Sutton?s goal at the 2:41 mark of the extra period extended the Storm?s points streak to four games (2-0-2).
?You look at (Spruce Grove) bench and there was a lot of blood, a lot of ice bags, and those are the games that you want. We don?t want teams coming up here thinking it will be an easy two points. It?s been like that for too long.?
The Storm opened the scoring late in the first as Devin Sutton found the back of the net on a power play.
But the Saints would respond in the second with goals from Jonathan Assayag and Jordan Biro to take a 2-1 lead into the second intermission.
After successfully killing off a double minor to Joseph Borthwick early in the third, the Storm slowly gained momentum throughout the period. They were rewarded when Nathan Morgan scored his 8th of the season with 4:53 left to send the game to overtime.
In the extra period, Ethan Strang just missed the net on a breakaway. When the puck came back into Storm territory, Jarin Sutton skated the puck into Saints territory, and let a shot go from the top of the right circle that found a spot inside the left post behind Saints netminder Matthew Davis.
?Jarin was a beast for us in the third period.? said Keillor. ?He was physical, he logged about 11-12 minutes of ice time in the period. We basically double shifted him after we lost Kwiatkowski, and then he ends up winning us the game.?
Another key to the win was the strong play of goalie Lars Kaliel, who made 37 stops for his sixth win of the season.
?We felt he deserved the start after his last game last Sunday when he was fantastic.? said Keillor. ?Both goalies push themselves, and it is a competition in there between the two of them and Lars is doing his thing right now. He has given us a chance to win in each of his last few games and that is all you can ask for.?
The win was the Storm?s 10th win of the season, and allowed the team to leap frog past Drayton Valley into fifth place in the North Division.
Keillor added it will be important for his club to build on this performance, as the two teams meet again on Saturday night.
?We know that if they put it together and they show up and they are ready to go that we can play with anybody in this league, and (Friday night) was a prime example of that. Now it is about maintaining that and finding a way to play at that level all of the time.?
Puck drop is set for 7:30 at Revolution Place.
Photo by Tammenthia Diesel | Story by Jeff Henson with EverythingGP