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Red Wings pick Tyler Bertuzzi’s ‘one last shot’ at comeback pays off for Guelph Storm

For weeks that became months, Tyler Bertuzzi was a power winger rendered powerless.

As late as Feb. 24, it appeared the Guelph Storm would have to forge a run for the Ontario Hockey League championship without the rugged forward who worked his way up into being a Detroit Red Wings late second-round choice in 2013. A lingering head/neck issue stemming from a fight in early December — never diagnosed as a brain injury — turned one of the Storm's vital cogs into an ethereal presence around the Sleeman Centre, one of the names listed among the scratches night after night when the lineups are posted in the media room before the game. Since coming back for the second playoff game, though, Bertuzzi has fortified the Storm forward corps with seven goals and 11 points over nine contests, including a two-goal effort in Thursday's 5-4 win over Erie in the opener of the Western Conference final. That makes him a minor medical marvel.

"I've been out four months or so, when I was coming back, I was just working out every day, skating," Bertuzzi told a post-game press conference following Guelph's win. "Just being able to be back with the guys and have that positivity... it's good to be back and working hard."

'One last shot at it'

Even though the code is to not discuss injuries during the playoffs, it would have been remiss not to let people in on how close the nephew of veteran NHLer Todd Bertuzzi was to being shut down until next season.

"I had a big smile on my face," Storm GM Mike Kelly told Rogers TV Guelph. "We were just about to the point where Tyler didn't look like he was going to play again this year. Lo and behold, we took one last shot at it and took him down to Detroit. The Red Wings were able to connect him with some specialists down there at the University of Michigan.

"The doctors did wonderful stuff. If you could imagine, the medical doctors were actually on the ice with him — okay? — going through drills, feeling how he was going, et cetera. They did some manipulations, they did some work. They told us to be much more aggressive with his rehabilitation. There were going to be time periods where he wouldn't feel quite right. That was normal. We pushed through all that and he's pushed through all that and here's what we see. When I think of how close he was to calling it a season... he's been a key to our success throughout the first few playoff games."

The 19-year-old Bertuzzi's dogged forechecking on first shift of the second period caused a turnover and created the chance for him to stake the Storm to its first lead. On the shift after Washington Capitals first-rounder André Burakovsky staked Erie to a 4-3 edge 2:24 into the final frame, Bertuzzi leveled with a top-of-the-circle slapshot. He wouldn't have been playing, let alone putting so much torque into his shot, if the able to put as much torque into that shot, if he and the Storm had resigned themselves to their fate.

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