A number of Storm players were facing their former Head Coach Jason Brooks for the first time since he joined the Niagara IceDogs as an Associate Coach and came out on top celebrating New Year's Eve with a 4-1 road win.

After nearly two periods of scoreless play, the IceDogs jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the dying seconds of the second. 

The Storm regrouped during the second intermission and replied quickly out of the break when Justin Auger scored his first career OHL goal off a Tyer Bertuzzi rebound.  Later in the period after Steven Shipley stepped out of the box to give the IceDogs an abbreviated powerplay, Frank Menard banged in a loose puck for the eventual game winner.  Cody McNaughton added some insurance after he outraced a Niagara defender to pick up a rebound and Stephen Gaskin scored into the empty net to make it a 4-1 final.

Tomorrow afternoon, the Kitchener Rangers come to Guelph for a 2 pm New Year's Day start.

Guelph Storm 4 at Niagara IceDogs 1 - Status: In Progress (FINAL)
Saturday, December 31, 2011 - Gatorade Garden City Complex

Guelph 0 0 4 - 4
Niagara 0 1 0 - 1

1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Friesen Niag (cross checking), 12:43.

2nd Period-1, Niagara, Agozzino 20 (Shipley, Beukeboom), 19:05. Penalties-Menard Gue (slashing), 7:05.

3rd Period-2, Guelph, Auger 1 (Horvat, Bertuzzi), 1:49. 3, Guelph, Menard 11 (Kosmachuk, Leslie), 14:23 (SH). 4, Guelph, McNaughton 15 (Dickinson, Mitchell), 17:38. 5, Guelph, Gaskin 6   18:20 (EN). Penalties-Dickinson Gue (tripping), 8:29; Shipley Niag (tripping), 12:17; McNaughton Gue (slashing), 13:21.

Shots on Goal-Guelph 13-9-15-37. Niagara 17-8-4-29.
Power Play Opportunities-Guelph 0 / 2; Niagara 0 / 3.
Goalies-Guelph, Sparks 11-9-1-2 (29 shots-28 saves). Niagara, Festarini 9-6-0-0 (36 shots-33 saves).
A-3,145
Referees-Craig Spada (10), Joe Park (27).
Linesmen-Darryl Wolfe (53), Mike Harrington (90).