Dean blames setback on ‘bone-headed mistakes’
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photos courtesy of Natalie Shaver (OHLImages)
FULL PHOTO GALLERY | GAME HIGHLIGHTS | GAME CENTRE
The Soo Greyhounds dropped more than just a hockey game on Wednesday.
They also dropped out of fourth place – worth home ice to start the playoffs – in the Western Conference.
The Saginaw Spirit took advantage of Greyhounds miscues and an off night by netminder Carter George, beating the Hounds 4-3 in front of 3,462 at Dow Event Center.
The visitors lost despite holding the Spirit to merely 14 shots, the lowest total the 2025-26 Hounds have surrendered.
“Two bone-headed mistakes in the third cost us. I’m extremely disappointed and there’s an immaturity to our club that needs to get solved real quick,” said head coach John Dean, whose team fell to 38-22-1-5, one point back of the London Knights (39-22-4-1) who secured a 6-2 victory over Guelph on Wednesday.
Both teams have two regular season games remaining, The Knights, with a combined total of 36 regulation and overtime wins, have now clinched the first tie-breaker between two teams who will meet in the opening round of the playoffs. The Hounds have just 33.
“In the third period, we got very individual, very loopy, very lazy. Our blue-line play was extremely immature and it results in a huge loss for us,” added Dean, whose team plays host to the Spirit on Friday (7:07 p.m.) and the Windsor Spitfires on Sunday (2:07 p.m.) to close the regular season. “We can’t have two turnovers at the offensive blue-line in the third period when we’re fighting for home ice.”
London is set to entertain Windsor on Friday, before visiting Flint on Saturday.
“Definitely not the result we wanted,” said Hounds winger Jeremy Martin, who notched his 27th and 28th goals of the season.
“We made some costly mistakes. That’s probably the reason why we lost,” said defenceman Chase Reid, who made his return after missing the previous 17 games with an upper-body injury.
With the score tied 3-3 in the third, Saginaw’s Jacob Cloutier intercepted a drop pass made by Lukas Fischer at the Spirit blue-line. That created a 3-on-1 and, at the 16:00 mark, Cloutier beat George high to the stick side from the right circle. That stood up as the winner.
With the score 2-2, Travis Hayes had his pass intercepted at the Saginaw blue-line, allowing Nikita Klepov to lead an odd-man rush. He fed a wide-open Levi Harper in the right circle and the Saginaw defenceman ripped a shot past George high to the stick side. That gave the home side a 3-2 advantage at 11:23.
Three minutes later, Martin tied the game, sliding the rebound of a Noah Laus point shot under netminder Stepan Shurygin.
The clubs traded goals in the opening frame. On the rush, Jordan Charron notched his 25th following a nice backhand feed from Carson Andrew at 17:39.
Less than a minute later, Brody Pepoy’s slick, one-handed feed resulted in Carson Harmer beating George high on the blocker side.
Cloutier gave his team a 2-1 lead following some beautiful passing on the powerplay. He went high blocker from the slot midway through the middle stanza.
The Greyhounds dodged a bullet two minutes later when an apparent Egor Barabanov goal was waived off due to an offside at the Hounds blue-line.
Martin tied it for the Soo, scoring a power-play tally just 46-seconds into the third. Reid drew an assist as Martin beat Shurygin high to the glove side.
Klepov was a standout with two assists.
On a night when his team enjoyed a 25-14 shots advantage, Dean was asked if his club could have used a save.
“I think so,” the coach answered. “He’s (George) going to want a couple of those back. But he’s the best goalie in the country and I suspect we’ll get a real-nice, bounce-back game from him.”
Martin admitted the Hounds didn’t do their goalie a big favor when it came to quality chances.
Of Saginaw’s scoring opportunities, “maybe seven or eight of their shots were Grade A chances,” he added.
Meantime, Dean called Reid’s performance “phenomenal” considering his lengthy layoff.
“I felt good out there,” Reid said of his conditioning. “I’m just disappointed we didn’t come away with the win.”
The Hounds coach also thought his club generated enough offensively to win.
“If we play that way, nine times out of 10, we win that hockey game,” he added.
However, Dean did not like what he saw from some of his best players.
In particular, he didn’t like the work of the Hayes-Brady Martin-Marco Mignosa line.
“It was a tough night for them,” Dean said. “But we need more guys stepping up in these tight games and frothing at the mouth to participate and contribute in a big way.”
In order to gain home ice, this loss, coupled with London’s victory, has made the Soo’s final weekend critical.
“These next two games are big for us,” Jeremy Martin said. “We just have to hope London drops one of their games and we get a big four points.”
Reid called falling into fifth place “super disappointing.”
