Peyton Backus netted a hat trick to lead the Guelph Hurricanes over the Cambridge Winter Hawks, 9-2.

Backus' first goal came 1:04 into the first period. He then added goals at 5:52 into the second and at 4:21 into the third.

Cambridge trailed by one after the first period, but Guelph went into the second intermission with a 5-1 lead and never looked back.

The Hurricanes forced the Winter Hawks' goalies to work between the pipes, taking 46 shots and forcing 37 saves. Lucas Machalski made 27 stops and Owen Savory made 10.

Guelph additionally got points from Craig Martini, who also registered three goals and two assists to lead the team in points. Guelph also had goals scored by Ryan Migliaccio, Giordano Finoro, and Jordan Hatzinger, who scored one goal each. More assists for Guelph came via Sheehan Kirkwood, who had five and Sebastian Stangherlin, Alex Remedios, Matt Nightingale, and Cameron Stokes, who each chipped in one.

Guelph was unable to stop Cambridge from sending pucks towards the net, and the Winter Hawks eventually piled up 31 shots on goal. Cambridge struggled to stay out of the sin bin throughout the game as it finished the game with 43 penalty minutes for 10 opposing power plays.

The Winter Hawks were led by Emmerson Small, who had one goal. Small scored 5:33 into the first period to make the score 1-1. Jordan Chard picked up the assist. Quinn Diamond also scored for Cambridge. In addition, Cambridge received assists from Parker Wood and Kyle Liu, who contributed one each.

The Hurricanes' Jeremie Lintner stopped 29 shots out of the 31 that he faced. Guelph incurred 14 minutes in penalty time with seven minors. Cambridge registered one goal on five power play opportunities. Team's Ben St Marseille and Drew Stirling were slapped with misconducts and ejected from the game.