Firebirds race past Greyhounds
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photos by Bob Davies
FULL PHOTO GALLERY | GAME HIGHLIGHTS | GAME CENTRE
The Flint Firebirds resembled their namesake on Friday, a sleek, speedy sports car.
In comparison, the Soo Greyhounds looked like an old pickup truck.
“We had a difficult time suppressing their speed,” said Hounds head coach John Dean, minutes after his club dropped a 5-1 decision to the Firebirds in front of 3,856 at GFL Memorial Gardens. “They’re a very-fast team in transition and they do a really-good job of getting up and down the ice quickly.”
Beyond out-skating the Greyhounds, the Firebirds displayed a hunger – they won the majority of puck battles – the home team was unable to match.
“Some of our lack of compete might have come out of frustration,” added Dean, whose club has lost all four of its head-to-head games with Flint this season. “A lot of guys who are regularly very good for us, struggled.”
The Hounds were also hurt by turnovers, shaky defensive play and a powerplay that finished just 1-for7.
The Soo had been 8-for-17 with the man advantage over its previous five games.
“It’s obviously super-disappointing,” said Hounds centre Brady Smith, whose club was kicking off arguably its biggest weekend of the season to this point. “The energy wasn’t there. You just have to flush a game like this.”
The Greyhounds carry a 30-16-1-3 mark into Sunday’s 2:07 p.m. home-ice clash with Windsor (33-11-5-2), a 5-2 winner in Sudbury on Friday.
“We weren’t very good tonight. It’s not from a lack of care. Everyone was ready to go,” said overage winger Justin Cloutier. “We didn’t come out to our standard and we just didn’t execute.”
“We were clinical in the neutral zone, clinical in the offensive zone, we had nice clean exits and we didn’t give them much,” said Flint head coach Paul Flache, whose club improved to 34-12-3-2.
Kitchener (34-11-4-1) also prevailed on Friday, stopping Guelph 6-2.
In the Western Conference, the Rangers, Firebirds and Spitfires all have 73 points, nine more than the Hounds and 10 better than London (29-16-4-1), a 5-4 overtime winner over Niagara.
Against the Greyhounds, the Firebirds opened the scoring with a power-play goal just 1:46 in. Kevin He took the puck from deep in his own zone, skated around Brodie McConnell-Barker and fed Jacob Battaglia in front.
Battaglia, who had beaten Travis Hayes to the net, tucked it home on the stick side past Carter George.
Fifteen minutes later, the visitors connected shorthanded after the Soo turned the puck over at the Flint blue-line.
Nathan Aspinall fired from the left circle and beat George high on the glove side to make it 2-0.
Early in the second period, the Hounds again turned it over at the opposition blue-line. That led to another opportunity for Aspinall, who fired from the left circle and put the puck low glove-side on the Hounds netminder.
The home side finally made some noise early in the third after Battaglia was whistled for a double-minor for cross-checking at the 1:08 mark.
Christopher Brown’s initial shot was stopped by Mason Vaccari, but the veteran centre circled the Firebirds net. Brown found Jeremy Martin in front and the former Flint forward banged home his 20th goal of the season.
That made it 3-1.
But at 4:36, Battaglia out-raced Callum Croskery to the puck in the Soo zone and allowed Aspinall to make a play.
He found Darian Anderson, who unleashed a wicked one-timer from the top of the right circle. The shot beat George high on the glove side to make it 4-1.
Beginning at 12:13 of the third, the Soo had a 5-on-3 powerplay for a full two minutes but failed to connect.
They even pulled George for a good part of that sequence, giving the Hounds a 6-on-3 advantage.
“That 6-on-3 (performance) was very discouraging,” Dean admitted. “We have to make sure we’re battling for pucks and competing. That’s the part that hurts the most.”
Flint capped the scoring when He fired one into the empty net.
Aspinall finished with two goals and an assist while both He and Battaglia contributed a goal and an assist.
Outshot 25-24 overall, the Hounds managed just three shots over the first 20 minutes.
Based on Flint’s strengths, Dean said the Greyhounds tried to be more controlled and conservative with their forecheck.
“But we slowed it down too much,” the coach explained. “We didn’t get on the hunt (for pucks), which is where we get paid as a group.”
The Soo skated minus four injured players: Centres Quinn McKenzie and Brady Martin and defencemen Jakub Winkelhofer and Chase Reid.
Did that burden catch up to the Hounds on Friday?
“We’re missing some important guys and obviously it’s going to have an impact,” Dean answered. “We’d be silly not to acknowledge it. But the big thing tonight was not giving ourselves a chance.”
The Soo had played its last four on the road, including Wednesday’s 6-0 win in Saginaw.
Asked if fatigue was a factor against Flint, Dean said no.
“Every team has tough stretches. . . it’s part of 68 (games),” the coach answered. “I don’t want to lean on that crutch.”
Looking ahead to Sunday, Smith said he and his teammates must reset.
“We have to get back to our game, which is working hard and playing the right way,” he said.
Friday’s loss “obviously makes Sunday’s game that much bigger,” Cloutier added. “The only positive to this is that we can redeem ourselves on Sunday.”
Notes:
Dean speculated the Hounds will “probably” see McKenzie, out with a lower-body injury, on Sunday. “But I don’t know for sure.”
