Popovich’s time to shine for Storm
Guelph Storm goalie hopes to carry breakout season into the playoffs for underdog squad
— There was a void in the crease at the Sleeman Centre.
Overage goalie Liam Herbst had graduated from the Ontario Hockey League and new Guelph Storm coach and general manager George Burnett was left with sophomore Anthony Popovich and rookie Nico Daws as options in net at training camp.
“That was certainly a position of uncertainty or a question at the start of the year,” said Burnett.
What the skipper didn’t fully realize is that Popovich had his eyes locked on the job. Being a starting netminder in the OHL has been one of his goals ever since he was a kid on the minor hockey circuit in Belleville.
“I knew that coming in that I had a pretty amazing opportunity,” said Popovich. “I just tried to do everything I could to take advantage of it.”
And the 18-year-old made good on his quest.
Popovich appeared in 60 games and played 3,416 minutes between the pipes, good for second most in the OHL. He also faced a league-high 1,998 shots while compiling a record of 29-21-4-3.
“I think he has been one of our most improved players,” said Burnett. “He has been a big part of our team making some significant progress.”
And the Storm will have to push the netminder for more if the seventh-ranked club wants to upset the second-seeded Kitchener Rangers in their western conference quarter-final, which begins Friday at the Aud.
Three of Popovich’s victories came against Kitchener this past season but the backstopper’s 4.31 goals against average and .873 save percentage in the eightgame series with the Blueshirts were a bit bloated.
“You always know you’re going to get a lot of work early especially in Kitchener with that big crowd they have,” he said. “They have some of the best forwards in the league and they can go off at any point.
“If you can weather the storm for the first 10 minutes and even in the start of each period and get settled into the game it makes it a lot easier.”
The Rangers won five games and lost three against Guelph in the season series. But take out a 10-3 blowout and things were a lot closer.
That, and the fact that Guelph won the past two tilts against their rivals, has the Storm feeling confident heading into the bestof-seven playoff series.
“These guys (Rangers) had a pretty successful year and they have one of the toughest rinks to play in,” said Popovich. “But I think being an underdog will help take some of the pressure off.”
Popovich is ready to play spoiler. He hopes that all those minutes sweating in the crease and all that rubber ricocheting off his equipment has helped prepare him for his first OHL playoff run.
It has been a long grind in Guelph of late. The Storm won the OHL championship and lost to the Edmonton Oil Kings in the Memorial Cup final in 2014. Since then, the club has only qualified for the playoffs twice.
Only six players on this year’s squad have playoff experience and only three have played more than 10 post-season games.
Popovich understands he’ll have to come up big against the Rangers if the Storm wants to move on.
“It has been a rough past few years for our team,” he admitted. “I think the goalie is always the guy on the team that everybody should always be able to fall back on.”