Hounds entered Sunday in ‘a bad mood’
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
It’s been said living well is the best revenge.
While that might be true, on Sunday the best revenge for the Soo Greyhounds came in the form of an impressive victory.
Nine days after a humiliating 12-1 loss in Sarnia, the Hounds rebounded to stop the Sting 7-3 before 3,257 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
“We went into today in a bad mood,” said winger Connor Clattenburg, whose club scored five unanswered goals to win its second straight, while finishing a three-game stretch with five of a possible six points. “That 12-1 game was quite embarrassing to our club, everybody in the room and the coaches.”
“That was just unacceptable on our part,” added winger Julian Fantino as he looked back at the Feb. 3 clash, the Soo’s worst loss of the season. “That’s something that can’t happen. It made us more determined. We wanted to right that wrong and that’s what we did.”
Winger Brenden Sirizzotti, who paced his team with two goals and an assist, spoke of how head coach John Dean talked to his players about the loss before the game, reminding them of what had transpired in Sarnia.
“We weren’t going to let it go,” said Sirizzotti, who has 16 goals on the season, including nine in 22 games with the Soo. “You never want to lose a game by double digits. We bounced back and showed that team that we can play.”
Sarnia head coach Alan Letang was asked if his players took the Greyhounds lightly on Sunday.
“Yeah, we probably did, judging by the score of this game,” said Letang. “The message was pretty clear before the game that we shouldn’t take them lightly, because we know how we would respond if we’d lost in a game like that.”
Letang went on to praise the Hounds, saying everyone on their team played hard.
Which was one of the things that had Greyhounds head coach John Dean smiling.
“We played a consistent 60. We forced mistakes, got on pucks and were very engaged,” said Dean, whose club rallied from a 2-1 deficit, improving to 16-22-8-5 at the three-quarters mark of the 68-game, OHL season. “The big thing for me was the forecheck. We stayed on top of their D and took away time and space.”
With the victory, the ninth-place Hounds are back to within three points of eighth-place Kitchener (23-24-2-0) in the Western Conference playoff race. The Rangers do, however, have two games in hand.
Kitchener is here on Friday (7:07 p.m.) after the Hounds entertain Saginaw on Wednesday. Both are 7:07 p.m. starts.
The Erie Otters (16-28-1-4), 10th in the conference, pay a Saturday for a 7:07 p.m. start.
Trailing 2-1 after 20 minutes, the Hounds outscored the visitors 4-1 in what was a decisive second period.
Kalvyn Watson took a feed from Marco Mignosa and converted a 2-on-1 for his 26th goal at 4:28.
Christian Kyrou, on a beautiful individual effort, put the Sting up 3-2 at 8:12. Kyrou carried the puck down the left side and circled the Soo net before his centering attempt appeared to deflect off of a Greyhound defender and off of goalie Charlie Schenkel.
But the home side tied the game just 34 seconds later. Jordan D’Intino stripped the puck from a Sting player and fed Fantino, who fired the disc past Ben Gaudreau and into a yawning cage.
“That was a great, awesome play by D’Intino,” Fantino said. “Our forecheck was buzzing all day.”
Matthew Virgilio, who was a standout, made a tremendous stretch pass to Sirizzotti to help give the Hounds a 4-3 lead.
Sirizzotti made a right-to-left move on Gaudreau before scoring on the backhand at 10:22.
On the rush, just over three minutes later, Mignosa fired from the left face-off circle and beat Gaudreau bar-down on the blocker side. That made it 5-3.
The Soo also scored the only two goals of the final frame, tallies by Justin Cloutier, at 2:21, and Sirizzotti, two minutes later.
Fantino, Mignosa and Cloutier all finished with a goal and an assist on a day when the home side held a 29-28 edge in shots.
Defenceman Caleb Van De Ven, with his first career tally, rounded out the scoring while Virgilio and Mark Duarte contributed two assists each.
In a chippy contest, Clattenburg, who finished with an assist, was effective in frustrating the opponent.
“That’s part of my game and I love it,” said the first-year player. “I found a way to get under their skin today and I stuck with it.”
While saying he believed Schenkel would like a goal or two back, Dean talked about how his netminder’s presence has helped to steady the ship.
Easton Wainright and Lukas Fischer had the other goals for Sarnia, which fell to 26-17-4-2.
Late in the game, Hounds captain Bryce McConnell-Barker was on the receiving end of a physical hit by Sarnia’s Nolan Dillingham, just inside the Sting blue-line. The veteran centre appeared as if the wind had been knocked out of him and left the ice with 4:40 remaining. Officials deemed it to be a clean hit.
But Dean, who was unhappy over the play, was animated while yelling at Letang.
Afterward, the Sarnia coach said he believes the hit was clean, while adding: “I hope he (McConnell-Barker) is OK. But it’s hockey. You take a risk cutting across the ice with your head down.”
Dean said he will always defend his players, noting how “when I see my captain go down like that, I’m going to emotionally respond. I’ll take another look at it, but they were running guys late in a four-goal game.”
Minutes after the game, the Soo coach also said he hadn’t yet spoken with athletic specialist Julian Cooper and wasn’t sure about the extent of McConnell-Barker’s injury.
