In a penalty filled affair, the Storm struggled on the penalty kill as the Oil Barons netted 4 PPG and skated to a 6-3 win over the visiting Storm. The Oil Barons got on the board early on the powerplay at 1:15 in the first period. The Storm answered back early in the 2nd with a powerplay marker of their own, scored by Milot-Ouellet (1), from Blake (1) and Power (1). The Oil Barons filled the net shortly after in rapid succession and took a 4-1 lead at 13:18 in the second (with two on the powerplay). The Storm would find the net at 14:37 in the second with a higlight reel goal from Strang (1), unassisted. The Oil Barons would add two more in the final frame, and the Storm would find the back of the net with 17:53 on the powerplay remaining but it was too little to late: Okabe (1), Power (2), Blake (2). Head Coach & Assistant General Manager Matt Keillor commented on the game afterwards:
“At the end of the day, we had 5 powerplays in a row but gained zero momentum from them. Curr was solid again and made saves that would be goals any other night. He was a game changer for them. On a positive note, I really liked some of your young guys' games. Strang seemed to evolve as the game went on and scored a highlight-reel goal for his first in the junior hockey. Bierd was a pest all night and I saw a physical edge to Nordstrom I didn’t expect. We saw a lot of positives this weekend, having only allowed 3 goals against in 5-on-5 hockey. This weekend gave us hard games to coach and even harder games for players to find a rhythm and consistency. That being said, these are lessons we need to learn as a team, and better to learn them now then later. We felt at even strength we were very difficult to play against, and that is important to us, especially early in the season. We have lots of skill throughout our lineup, and our special teams will be strong as we get more comfortable with each other.”
The Storm open up their home schedule September 21 against the Spruce Grove Saints. Tickets are available at the Revolution Place Box Office.