Guelph Storm take OHL title on the wings of Kerby Rychel’s 2 late snipes

Once the Guelph Storm got level, getting the winner was a matter of when, not if. Such was their irrefutable late-minute lightning in this OHL final, which the crimson tide put a bow with their third cliffhanger win over the North Bay Battalion.

With 4:29 left in regulation, the Battalion had an odd-man rush and a chance to open a two-goal lead and force the series back to the raucous North Bay Memorial Gardens. Storm goalie Justin Nichols kicked a rebound out at a roughly 45-degree angle toward North Bay's second-leading playoff goal scorer, Nick Paul. The puck took a Storm bounce over Paul's stick, leading to a odd-man rush for the league's highest-scoring team. You just knew how that would play out, with Kerby Rychel, whom the Storm gave up eight players and picks to acquire from the Windsor Spitfires, burying a rebound. Then, with 26.3 seconds left, Rychel scored off a scramble to give the Storm a 4-3 win and the series in five games (fulfilling pre-series predictions).

The Storm scored two last-minute wins in the series and an overtime triumph along with a 10-1 blowout. It was dominance mixed with drama brought out by the Battalion's dogged defensive work and the goaltending of Jake Smith.

"It's crazy, unbelievable," Rychel told Sportsnet in an interview. "Everyone's bought in. We didn't have our best game tonight but we knew we just had to keep pushing and we would come out on top. We'll enjoy it for a few days and then we'll get ready for the Memorial Cup."

Paul scored in the first period and rookie Brett McKenzie redirected a shot home with exactly a minute left in the first period to give North Bay the lead after 20. In the second, Battalion captain Barclay Goodrow pounced on a Guelph giveaway at centre ice and converted the short-handed breakaway for his 14th goal of the playoffs.

The Storm pressed late in the second were rewarded when Toronto Maple Leafs-signed captain Matt Finn scored. That put them within sniffing distance to overtake the Battalion, who were 7-1 in the playoffs when ahead after two periods but had an overtaxed defence, with veterans Dylan Blujus and Marcus McIvor carrying heavy workloads.

Guelph managed to make it a short series despite never really managing to max out its effort in front of its own fans at the Sleeman Centre. Yet the veteran club bottled up the Battalion and kept in striking distance, thanks in no small part to 18-year-old goalie Justin Nichols (2.63 average, .919 save pct. in playoffs). Wrapping up the series early should also mean that Guelph will be the most rested of the three league champs who arrive in London next week.

"It's a big relief," fourth-year coach Scott Walker, a former NHL forward, said. "These guys deserve it. They worked hard for each other. We didn't have anybody win major awards. Everybody doubted our goaltending, our size, our style, all those things. But they stuck with it. I've never seen a more mature group. We didn't lose two in a row very often.

"It's all about the players. We were hard on them after we lost earlier in the series. We thought we owed it to them ... they wouldn't like us 10 years from now if we didn't push them and were just happy to be here. We took the risk of them not liking us and told them they owed it to themselves."

Guelph is the eighth OHL champion in a row, and 12th in the past 13 seasons, from the Western Conference.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.