Greyhounds Andrew notches memorable tally
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photos by Bob Davies
FULL PHOTO GALLERY | GAME HIGHLIGHTS | GAME CENTRE
On his stick, late Tuesday night, Carson Andrew had the puck, the game and a commanding lead in the series.
And the Soo Greyhounds second-year winger made the most of that opportunity.
At 2:13 of the second overtime, Andrew deposited the rebound of a Travis Hayes shot past London netminder Sebastian Gatto.
That gave the Hounds a 3-2 victory over the Knights in front of 4,161 at GFL Memorial Gardens, good for a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven, Western Conference quarter-final.
Game 4 is set for Wednesday at 7:07 p.m. here.
“It’s definitely the biggest goal of my hockey career. It feels great,” said the St. Louis native. “It happened so fast.”
Quinn McKenzie shot the puck in and Hayes out-raced a London defender for it.
The winger circled the net and fired from the left dot.
“Our mentality in overtime is to just get pucks to paint,” Hayes explained. “I whiffed on it, but good thing it went to Carson.”
The shot appeared to hit a Knights defender in front and Andrew made no mistake with it.
“I just stopped right in front of the net and the rebound bounced out,” he said. “After a long game like that, you just want to celebrate with the boys.”
How does it feel to be the hero?
“Who doesn’t want to be the hero?” Andrew answered.
“He went for the paint, which is what we tell our guys to do,” said a smiling Hounds head coach John Dean. “The rebound pops out, he does a turnaround whip and bangs it home. Awesome.”
Andrew played just one shift in the first overtime as Dean shortened his bench to three lines.
“We had a pretty-good combination of three (lines) and we didn’t want to break anything up,” the coach explained. “But in the second overtime, it’s about making sure we manage our fatigue.”
That led to Andrew’s number being called.
“You just have to always be ready for any opportunity you’re going to get,” Andrew said. “I was ready for that opportunity.”
Hayes called it a “feeling of relief. That was a really-big goal.”
The Hounds had a great opportunity to end the night in the first overtime.
Brady Martin was awarded a penalty shot after being pulled down by London’s Linus Funck.
But Gatto, who was a standout, made a stick save on the Soo captain at the 13:34 mark.
The Hounds controlled the first OT, outshooting the Knights 15-8.
“Shot volume might have been in our favor, but they had good chances, too,” Dean said of the Knights.
Trailing 2-1 in the third, the Hounds tied it with 3:59 to go in regulation. After the Knights were unable to clear, Callum Croskery’s point shot was redirected home by Jordan Charron standing on the right side of the goal.
Just two minutes earlier, the visitors appeared to open a 3-1 lead when Kaeden Hawkins went high over Carter George on a 3-on-2 break.
But the Hounds rolled the dice, challenging the goal in the belief the Knights were offside.
The challenge worked and the Soo’s deficit remained a single goal, until Charron scored.
Dean credited video analyst and director of analytics Colin Johnson.
Johnson “basically has 10 seconds to make a decision,” the coach explained. “It was a great call. It was incredible. I’m super proud of him.”
With the score 1-1, the visitors took the lead on a penalty shot of their own at 5:22 of the second period. Following a Soo turnover at the London blue-line, Lukas Fischer had little choice but to impede a streaking Evan Van Gorp.
On the penalty shot, Van Gorp sped in quickly and beat George high to the blocker side to make it 2-1.
The Knights opened the scoring on a power-play tally by Jaxson Cover at 13:24 of the opening period.
The Hounds tied the game at 19:01 of the first when Croskery walked in on the right side and beat Gatto with a low shot to the stick side.
On a night when the Soo held a 45-30 edge in shots, Croskery was a standout with a goal and an assist. McKenzie finished with a pair of assists.
Knights assistant coach Rick Steadman spoke of how proud the staff was of the London players.
“Anytime you play double overtime, it can go either way,” he said. “It was just a hard-fought, playoff battle.”
He called Gatto “awesome. He kept us in the game. He’s played well all series.”
“The job isn’t finished yet,” Andrew said as he looked ahead to Game 4. “We still have one more game to take care of.”
Notes:
Hounds centre Chris Brown missed the game with an upper-body injury. Dean said the veteran is day to day.
Meantime, should this series require a fifth game, it would be played Friday (7 p.m.) in London. Game 6, if needed, is set for Sunday (7:07 p.m.) at GFL Memorial Gardens.
And should this series go the distance, Game 7 is scheduled for Tuesday (7 p.m.) of next week in London.
