They deserved better.
Playing the fourth game of a four-game road trip and down 4-1 going into the third period the Grande Prairie Storm showed some mettle against the Spruce Grove Saints on Saturday.
They battled back to tie the game at 4-4, but ended up giving up the game-winner with just 1:08 to go in a 6-4 loss to the Saints.
The team lost all four games away from Revolution Place over eight days and now find themselves in a five-game slump.
The friendly confines of Revolution might be just what they need to get back on track when they host the Sherwood Park Crusaders in games Thursday and Friday – 7:30 p.m. start time.
After a scoreless first, the Saints scored four times (Tyson Gruninger, Sean Comrie, Chris Van Os-Shaw and Seth Fyten) to GP's once, off the stick of Zach Okabe, in the second.
Cue the comeback.
Logan Mozerolle made it 4-2 at 1:22; Edouard Michaude narrowed it to 4-3 at 9:40; and then Justin Bernier tied it at 11:31.
The comeback was ruined by Spruce Grove's Nick Leyer at 18:52 before Gruninger salted it away with an empty-netter at 19:21.
Michaude, who missed a month of the season with an injury, also had two assists – his second three-point game since he returned – and now has 10 points in those six games since coming back.
Bernier had an assist for a two-point game and sits third overall in the league in points with 39, including 25 assists.
Five Storm players are in the top 10 in league scoring. Dallas Comeau is fifth (34 points); Michaud and rookie Okabe are tied for seventh with 31; and Connor Blake is ninth with 30 points.
Veteran Charles-Olivier Levesque played net for the Storm Saturday looking at 44 shots while the Storm fired 32 at Parker Tobin in the SG net.
As the team nears the halfway point of the season they sit in fourth place, 11 back of the third place Saints and only 13 back of the Alberta Junior Hockey League North Division leading Fort McMurray Oil Barons. The Crusaders and Bonnyville Pontiacs are tied for fifth three back of the Storm.