Despite OT loss, Hounds have ‘full belief’
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Natalie Shaver
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Calem Mangone wrote Friday’s final few words in what could have been the script of a best-selling suspense novel.
The Sault native scored at 7:53 of overtime, giving the Saginaw Spirit a thrilling 3-2 victory over the Soo Greyhounds in front of 4,807 at the Dow Event Center.
The dramatic win provides Saginaw with a 3-2 advantage in the best-of-seven, Western Conference semifinal series, heading into Game 6 on Sunday (7:07 p.m.) at GFL Memorial Gardens.
“The puck took a tough bounce off the glass and wound up back on their stick,” said Hounds head coach John Dean, whose team must prevail on Sunday in order to force a deciding contest on Tuesday (7:05 p.m.) in Saginaw.
The winner of this series faces London in the conference final.
“We broke down a bit in front of Charlie (Schenkel),” Dean said, as he continued to review the moments before the OT marker. “They get a puck on net and a Grade A opportunity for Mangone to put in the rebound.”
Just before the winner, Joey Willis fired from the slot and Schenkel made a sprawling save in front of the net. Mangone took the rebound on his backhand and deposited his fourth goal of this series.
“Obviously it’s tough, but we still have full belief in this group,” said Hounds captain Bryce McConnell-Barker, who notched his third goal of this series. “We’ll go home, focus on the next game and win the next two games.”
Dean echoed the veteran centre’s words saying his club’s “cup of confidence is overflowing. I will bet on this team any day when our back is against the wall.”
Winger Jack Beck, a standout in his return to the lineup after missing seven games due to an upper-body injury, talked of the bond the Hounds have as teammates and how important that is.
“We know how good we are and we always answer back,” added Beck, who scored a beautiful goal. “We know what we need to do to win and we’re not worried.”
On a night when both Schenkel and Saginaw’s Nolan Lalonde shone, Beck spoke of how the Hounds had their chances.
“The game could have gone either way,” he said. “They had a good chance in front and they capitalized. In the second period, I thought we were all over them. But at the end of the day, you have to put the puck in the net to win.”
Saginaw trailed 2-1 in the third period when Hunter Haight connected on the power play. With Owen Allard off for holding, Haight patiently skated into the slot and snapped one past Schenkel on the glove side. That tied the game at the 7:54 mark.
The Soo had a wonderful opportunity to take the lead when Allard was hauled down on a breakaway by Owen Beck with 6:48 left in regulation.
But Lalonde stopped his second Soo penalty shot of the series, making a slick glove save on Allard. Lalonde also made a point-blank save on Beck with 3:00 to go in regulation.
“Obviously, it would have been a huge benefit if he scores,” Dean said of Allard’s penalty-shot opportunity. “But I don’t think it had a (negative) impact on us.”
The Soo opened the scoring on a power play at 11:47 of the first period. Kirill Kudryavtsev fired from the left side and McConnell-Barker banged the rebound past Lalonde.
The Spirit tied it at the 2:00 mark of the middle frame with the clubs skating 4-on-4. Jorian Donovan opened up some room for Matyas Sapovaliv who fired from the left dot. His shot beat a screened Schenkel high on the stick side to make it 1-1.
Displaying the hands of a surgeon, Beck gave his team a 2-1 lead late in the second period.
Kirill Kudryavtsev made a beautiful pass to spring Allard on a breakaway. Lalonde made a nice stop on Allard, but the puck bounced up into the air. Beck, who registered eight shots in the game, arrived on the scene and batted the disk past the Spirit netminder.
That made it 2-1 with 2:11 to go in the second period.
“He was fabulous,” Dean said of Beck, who was on the receiving end of a check to the head in Game 1 of the Soo’s four-game sweep of Guelph. “It was very impressive for him to come back and have a huge impact for our team. To hit it out of the air like that, you can’t teach that stuff.”
“I think I have pretty good hand-eye (coordination), and luckily it went in,” Beck explained. “But we didn’t win, so it doesn’t matter.”
On a night when his team was outshot 40-34, including 8-7 in OT, Schenkel was impressive throughout, but especially brilliant early on. He made a series of clutch saves as Saginaw outshot the Soo 11-1 over the first 7:38 of the opening period.
“He was a rock for us,” said Dean. “We played a fantastic game and I thought we deserved to win. But we don’t have that opportunity without Charlie. Both goalies played well, but unfortunately, it wasn’t our night.”
McConnell-Barker said the Hounds will learn from Game 5.
“But then we’ll forget about it and it’s on to the next game,” he added. “And get the win there. We’ll go over some video when we get home and clean up some stuff.”
Kudryavtsev finished with a pair of assists for the Hounds, while Mangone and Sapovaliv had a goal and an assist each for the winners.
Notes: The Spirit skated minus its captain, defenceman Braden Hache, who received a two-game suspension following Game 4. In that contest, Hache was whistled for a five-minute match penalty for slew-footing. If there is a Game 7, he would be eligible to return.
And Saginaw again played without netminder Andrew Oke, who suffered an upper-body injury following a collision with McConnell-Barker in Game 2. Coach Chris Lazary previously refused comment when asked about the possibility of Oke returning in this series.