John Najafi lifted the Guelph Hurricanes to a 9-3 victory with a hat trick against the Niagara Falls Canucks.

Najafi got on the scoresheet 54 seconds into the first period. He then added goals at 13:40 into the second and at 15:19 into the third.

Niagara Falls' 12 penalties came back to haunt it, as the Canucks let up five goals while on the penalty kill.

Guelph found the back of the net more times than it usually has this season. This season, the Hurricanes average 2.3 goals per contest. The defensemen of Guelph were also effective in Niagara Falls' zone, and came away with two goals. The Hurricanes' penalty killing units received substantial work throughout the game as Guelph finished with 56 penalty minutes.

Guelph additionally got points from Nico Giannantonio, who also racked up one goal and two assists, Craig Martini, who also grabbed one goal and one assist, Chad Herron, who also finished with two goals and one assist, Zach McFadden, who also tallied one goal and one assist, and Matt Lippa, who also registered one goal and three assists to lead the team in points. Other players who recorded assists for Guelph were Patrick Kudla, Steven Domenichini, Daniel Brennen, Jordan Hatzinger, Dustin Baker, and Sebastian Stangherlin, who each chipped in one.

The Canucks were often in penalty trouble, totaling 11 minors and one major for 77 minutes in penalty time. Niagara Falls had been averaging 27.0 minutes in penalties per game. The Canucks were held back by their power play unit, which tallied two goals on nine chances.

Niagara Falls was led by Darren Young, who grabbed one goal and one assist. Young scored on the power play 13:32 into the first period to make the score 1-1. The Canucks had gained a power play chance when Caleb Champagne was whistled for tripping. Michael Christou provided the assist. Niagara Falls also got points from Christou, who also racked up one goal and one assist. Niagara Falls also got a goal from Drew Berkel as well. In addition, Niagara Falls received assists from Frank Nemeth and Marcus Michalski, who contributed one a piece.

Jason DaSilva rejected 15 shots on goal for the Hurricanes. Team's Matt Nightingale and Najafi were slapped with misconducts and ejected from the game. Niagara Falls' Dylan Pietrangelo stopped 15 shots out of the 24 that he faced. For the Canucks, Christou and Vito Scaringi were ejected from the contest.