Hounds beat Petes, prepare for Rangers
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
A fast start helped make for a very satisfying finish for the Soo Greyhounds on Saturday.
Scoring twice in the first seven minutes, the Hounds did just about everything right, en route to a 6-2 win over the Peterborough Petes in front of 4,027 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
“Our guys played a fantastic game. We’ve been trying to find a more consistent brand of hockey and tonight I think we found it,” said head coach John Dean, whose club improved to 37-16-2-1, six points back of first-place Saginaw in the West Division, but with one game in hand. “They showed exactly what brand of hockey they want to play.”
A less-than-pleased Dean had called out his charges following last Monday’s 7-3 win over Sarnia.
“It’s not fun challenging your team, but I think there are times in the season when you have to,” the coach noted. “But tonight, these guys sent a clear message to each other, and the fans, what kind of hockey we want to play.”
“We stuck to what we do best,” said first-year centre Brady Martin, a standout with three assists. “It’s our work ethic, pressuring teams with our speed and skill and we’re a forechecking team. When we do that, we get a lot more chances.”
Winger Julian Fantino liked the fact the club was strong and steady for the majority of the night.
“We played the closest to a full 60 minutes in a little while,” said Fantino, who notched a goal and an assist and has a 3-2-5 stat line over his last two games. “We talked about consistency all week.”
Also on Saturday, Saginaw rallied from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits before edging Brantford 5-4 in overtime. With the win, the Soo’s arch-rivals improved to 41-15-0-1.
The Spirit is idle on Sunday while the Hounds play host to Kitchener (2:07 p.m.) in a key Western Conference clash. A win would move the Hounds to within four points of Saginaw.
The Rangers, idle on Saturday, carry a 36-19-2-0 mark into the Greyhounds game. Kitchener is fourth in the conference, three points behind the Soo, but the Hounds also have one game in hand on the Rangers.
Against the Petes, Justin Cloutier retrieved a loose puck and that led to the game-opening goal, the veteran winger’s 20th. Kirill Kudryavtsev made a slick, cross-ice feed to Cloutier in the left circle and the Ottawa native beat Liam Sztuska to the glove side at 3:59.
Kudryavtsev took a feed from Travis Hayes and beat a screened Sztuska to the glove side for a 2-0 lead at 6:27.
The Petes got a goal from Ryder McIntyre at 14:43 before Julian Fantino scored his third goal over the last two games before the period ended.
Fantino ripped home his 10th at 16:10 and the Greyhounds went to intermission with a 3-1 lead.
Andrew Gibson, with his fourth goal over the last four games, and Chris Brown added late second period goals to make it 5-1.
On a night when his team held a 42-22 edge in shots, Jordan D’Intino had the other Soo goal. He joined the likes of Kudryavtsev, Fantino and Brown with a goal and an assist each. A second-year player, Brown’s plus-minus was plus-4.
Braydon McCallum, on the power play, was the only other Petes shooter to beat Soo goalie Landon Miller.
As his young team fell to 17-32-6-1, head coach Rob Wilson spoke of how he didn’t like the Petes first period.
“But we regrouped in the second and I thought we had some really good moments,” he said. “And we competed well in the third.”
Hayes absorbed a check late in the third period and left the ice in some pain. Dean confirmed the rookie winger suffered an upper-body injury, but said he had no other information regarding the extent of the injury.
However, the coach did say Hayes would not be in the lineup on Sunday.
Martin called the Rangers a “very-skilled team,” while noting the importance of the Hounds managing the puck well. “We don’t like them, so it would be very satisfying to beat them.”
When asked about the matchup, Dean talked of how “consistency is king” for his club. “I don’t think it’ll take much to get our guys motivated tomorrow.”
As he spoke of the Hounds playing a “hard game” against the Petes, Kudryavtsev noted that approach would be a key moving forward.
Asked about the keys to a Sunday victory, he answered quickly.
“Our coach is the best at pre-scouting,” Kudryavtsev said. “He’ll tell us the plan before the game and we’ll all stick to it.”
