A not-so-funny thing happened to the Erie Otters on the road to perfection at the Sleeman Centre Friday night; they almost lost a very impressive streak and a hockey game, scraping out a 5-4 OHL win over the rival Storm on Andrew Yogan's overtime goal but giving away a point to a division rival in the process.

The perfect mark? Going into the game, the Otters were 8-0-0 when leading after two periods in games this season, and going into the third period, they had a handy 4-0 lead and seemingly a vice-like grip on a road win. And then an innocuous little deflection by rookie Connor Tresham at 7:09 opened the floodgates and not only did the Storm tie the game with goals by Peter Holland, Michael Latta and J.P. Labardo, the latter coming at 12:29, they had by far the best chances to win the contest in the remaining seven-and-a-half minutes and only an alert Ramis Sadikov kept Erie's hopes alive.

Up until then, the Looch was Loose before a crowd of 3,577 at the Sleeman Centre. Translation: Anthony Luciani is on another one of his scoring jags when he fills the opponent's net in bunches. In this case, it was his second two-goal performance in two nights and with an assist for a total of three points, he (18-13 -- 31) joined Zack Torquato (11-19 -- 30) as the first two Otters to reach the 30-point mark on the season. David Shields and Greg McKegg were the other Erie snipers as the Otters once again reached .500 hockey at 11-11-4-1. The victory in OT moved them three points ahead of the 11-12-1-1 Storm in the Midwest Division, 27-24, although Guelph has two games in hand.

The inability to handle the puck in their zone cost the Storm in the eighth minute of the opening period when Torquato set up a perfect hockey triangle that led to the game's first score. The Otter captain picked up the puck down low to the right of the Guelph goal, moved it across to Guelph native Mike Cazzola on the opposite side in the high slot and he fed a wide open McKegg in the crease who redirected it past Cody St. Jacques for his 11th of the season at 8:07.

The home team's first sustained attack on Sadikov actually led to the Otters' second goal. Midway through the 15th minute the Storm had three whacks down low but then Shawn Szydlowski, who had two assists on the night, retrieved the puck and sent Yogan away with Luciani on a two-on-one, trapping the entire pressing Guelph forward line. Yogan carried the puck down to the right face-off circle, held it for a three-count and then put the puck on Luciani's stick for an easy goal, the right winger's team-leading 17th of the year at 15:53.

It was more of the same in the second, and the Otters doubled the score, emerging 4-0 after 40 minutes. Ben Chiarot took his second penalty of the game at 7:22 and the Otters capitalized half a minute later. Luciani had the puck on the left boards and spotted Tyler Hostetter wide open in the middle of the ice, 10 feet inside the blue line. The defenseman teed up Luciani's pass and blasted a slapshot that Shields tipped into the Guelph net at 7:55 for his fourth goal of the year.

Luciani, who loves to score in bunches, turned in his second straight two-goal performance and third point of the night when he stole the puck in the neutral zone and walked in on St. Jacques, beating him through the pads with a low wrist shot at 10:11. The goal was unassisted.

So far, so good, until the fateful third period and the subsequent 1:21 of OT; thankfully Yogan has a long reach and got to a puck in the Guelph crease ahead of two defensemen for his 12th of the year.

"We just weren't disciplined in the third," Luciani said after the game, "and the next thing you know, it was a tie game. You can't let up against anybody in this league and the third period tonight proves it."

The sniper acknowledged a recent slump and said he had gotten away from concentrating on hockey. "I needed to start working out harder, and then focus on the game and that's why I've been playing a lot better lately," he admitted.

On his second goal, he followed his coach's advice. "Robbie keeps telling me to use my speed and drive the net and that's what I did. I went wide and then cut in and beat him five-hole."

The Otters have four points in the bank from the first two games of a second straight three-games-in-three nights weekends. Can the Otters emerge with six points with a home win against the Knights on Saturday?

"If we work hard and stay focused, sure we can," Luciani concluded.