Hounds ‘disappointed’ by sub-par performance
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Natalie Shaver (OHLImages)
Nothing against the city of Sarnia, but the Soo Greyhounds couldn’t wait to get out of Lambton County on Friday.
After opening the season with three straight victories, including Wednesday’s 3-2 shootout win over London, the Hounds – from the goalie out – struggled mightily against the Sting.
Marko Sikic scored three goals and assisted on another as Sarnia started quickly, en route to a 7-4 victory over the Hounds in front of 3,406 at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
“I’m very disappointed. It wasn’t a great effort by the guys,” said defenceman Andrew Gibson, whose club fell behind 3-0 by the 13:17 mark of the opening period. “We took them lightly. We took for granted our record and their record. Guys went in expecting things to just happen naturally again.”
“Unacceptable, right from the start,” added winger Jordan D’Intino, whose team trimmed its deficit to 3-2, before surrendering a late first period goal and the only two markers of the middle stanza.
At 6-2, that became a deficit too great to overcome.
“We got skated through a lot,” D’Intino said. “Their rush kept beating us. All-round it wasn’t good enough, every single guy. I think we all know it.”
John Dean said he didn’t believe the Greyhounds were overconfident.
The head coach spoke of how his club made critical errors, was shaky between the pipes, lacked some intensity and did a poor job of responding to Sarnia’s style of play.
“We had an off night,” added Dean, whose club was outshot 25-23. “They grinded us all game. They did a great job of protecting their blue-line and we gave up way too many chances. It’s a huge learning lesson for us early in the season.”
The Hounds take a 3-1-0-0 mark into the second game of this three-game trip, Saturday at 7 p.m. in Flint.
The road stint wraps up on Monday with a 2:07 p.m. face-off in Windsor.
With Friday’s victory, Sarnia improved to 2-2-0-0.
The Sting started quickly when Jacob LeBlanc’s stretch pass sent Sikic away alone.
The Kitchener native beat Charlie Schenkel high to the blocker side just 37-seconds in.
Dean said his team “made a critical error” allowing Sikic to get behind its defence.
Seven-minutes later, Schenkel kicked away a soft shot and Roman Kukumberg knocked home the rebound to make it 2-0.
Six minutes after that, later, Sikic let fly from the high slot and beat Schenkel high to the glove side to make it 3-0. At that point, Dean replaced Schenkel with Landon Miller.
“We have to work on our starts. We can’t be doing that,” said Gibson, who finished with a power-play goal and two assists and leads his team with a 2-6-8 stat line through four games.
A short-lived comeback began 42 seconds later when Christopher Brown went up high from the left face-off circle, beating Sarnia goalie Ben Gaudreau as the visitors got on the board.
Fewer than two minutes after that, at the 15:55 mark, a power-play shot by Travis Hayes hit Gaudreau in the mask and D’Intino deposited the rebound to make it 3-2.
But the Sting’s Mitch Young, through traffic from the slot area, restored his team’s two-goal lead at 19:44.
“We should have had that one,” Dean said of Young’s marker. “This wasn’t Charlie’s night, but Millsy (Miller) could have been better as well.”
Dean spoke of showing Schenkel how much confidence the club has in him, when asked about his decision to return the veteran to the Soo goal at the start of the second period.
“He’s a much better goalie than that. He knows he’s better than that,” the coach added. “I’m disappointed we couldn’t bail him out tonight.”
Former Greyhound Daylen Moses had the other two goals for the winners. Jacob LeBlanc had three assists for Sarnia while twin brother Andrew LeBlanc added a pair of helpers.
Arttu Karki, with the second goal of his OHL career, produced the other Soo marker. Karki has a 2-4-6 stat line to date.
D’Intino finished with a goal and an assist.
So, what’s the first item on Saturday’s to-do list?
Dean said he’s looking for his club to display its identity and core values.
“I want to see an angry team,” he began. “An angry, motivated, structured team.”
“There are 68 games in the season and you have to work in every one of them,” Gibson added.
Notes:
On Friday, Dean was named as one of Canada’s head coaches for the upcoming World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
The prestigious event begins Nov. 2 with games in both Charlottetown and Summerside, PEI.
Associate coach Paul Flache will make his debut as an OHL head coach when the Firebirds entertain the Hounds on Saturday.
Flache replaces Ted Dent, who was fired by Flint on Friday.
Hounds winger Connor Clattenburg completes his five-game, league-imposed suspension on Saturday. He’ll be eligible to return on Monday in Windsor.
The Arnprior, Ont., native was handed a checking-from-behind infraction, which resulted in a major penalty and game misconduct, in last year’s regular season finale on March 26 against Sudbury.
Meantime, the Hounds roster stands at 24 after the club released defenceman Caleb Van De Ven on Friday.
The 18-year-old (2004 birth year) played in 38 games a season ago, notching a goal and three assists.
