Hounds halfway there in series with Knights
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo courtesy of @wildavephotography
GAME HIGHLIGHTS | GAME CENTRE
Two-oh for the Soo Greyhounds – while playing on the road – is suddenly uh-oh for the London Knights.
Brady Martin scored at 19:34 of overtime on Sunday, giving the Hounds an emotion-soaked, 3-2 victory over the Knights in front of 8,260 at Canada Life Place.
In what was a goaltending battle between the Soo’s Carter George and London’s Sebastian Gatto, the Hounds opened a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference quarter-final.
Game 3 is slated for Tuesday (8:07 p.m.) at GFL Memorial Gardens with the fourth contest set for Wednesday (7:07 p.m.), also in the Sault.
“I’m pumped,” said Marco Mignosa, who set up Martin’s winner and finished with a goal and two assists. “To get two games on the road in a row, and we’re going home to a crazy crowd for Game 3 and Game 4, is awesome.”
“I feel good. That’s a big win for us going home with a 2-0 advantage,” added Martin.
Prior to a defensive-zone face-off, Hounds head coach John Dean called time to give his top players a rest.
“We wanted to make sure we had fresh legs, fresh lungs and our best five on the ice,” the coach explained.
Dean credited assistant coach Brendan Taylor for drawing up two plays, one if the Hounds won the draw, another if they lost.
The Soo did lose the draw, but Mignosa blocked a point shot before Martin found him at the London blue-line. The overage hesitated, before hitting Martin with a backhand feed. The Hounds captain skated into the left circle, cut inside defenceman Henry Brzustewicz and beat Gatto just over the pad on the glove side.
“Heck of a release for a great goal,” said Dean. “We try to encourage Marty to shoot as many pucks as possible.”
“I delayed as much as I could. I dropped it to Marty and he did the rest,” offered Mignosa. “He’s a special player.”
For his part, Martin, whose parents and other family members were in attendance, joked about having an ulterior motive when he scored.
“I was pumped we didn’t have to play another period,” he said.
On a night when the visitors held a 43-34 edge in shots, including 16-8 in overtime, George was especially effective in the second period. The veteran backstop made a big save on a driving Linus Funck 8:40 in, before stopping William Nicholl from the slot at 15:38.
Following a Soo turnover, George made another slick save on Jaxon Cover at 16:55.
“He was solid again,” Dean said of his goaltender. “He’s given us seven great periods.”
Asked about his club’s work in the extra session, the Soo coach spoke of how he was “very happy with OT. We didn’t try to be too fancy.”
With the Greyhounds leading 2-1, London tied the game just 1:23 into the final period. After Evan Van Gorp split the Soo defence, George made a huge save on him alone in front. But Funck followed up on the play, grabbed the rebound and went high stick side to make it 2-2.
The Hounds opened the scoring at 7:59 of the opening frame. On the powerplay, Martin forced a turnover in the London zone with a physical hit. From the point, Lukas Fischer found Mignosa down low on the left side and the overage beat Gatto high to the short side.
The visitors went ahead 2-0 at 11:44 of the middle period. Mignosa gobbled up an errant clearing attempt and fed Chase Reid in the high slot. The Hounds rearguard ripped a one-timer high to the glove side through traffic. That gave the Soo a two-goal advantage.
But skating 4-on-3, the Knights tied it with a power-play tally five minutes later. Braiden Clark was in front of the Hounds goal and he redirected a Cover shot through the five-hole, in tight, to make it 2-1.
“We thought we played a good game and London played a good game as well,” said Dean, whose club was set to travel back as far as Saginaw on Sunday night, before completing the remainder of the trip home on Monday. “I thought we limited odd-man chances and we limited second opportunities against Carter.”
Asked about the significance of winning two straight on the road, Dean said simply: “Now we’re off to Tuesday. That’s how we’re handling our business.”
Through the opening two games, Mignosa has scored twice and assisted on four others.
“Feels good, but it doesn’t matter,” he said. “In playoffs, it’s all about the next game.”
Martin also downplayed the importance of Sunday’s result.
“We’re definitely excited,” he said. “But we can’t feel too good about ourselves. We still have two more to win.”
Notes:
Game 5, if needed, is slated for Apr. 3 (7 p.m.) in London. If a sixth game is necessary, it would be played on Apr. 5 (7:07 p.m.) in the Sault.
And should the series go the distance, the deciding clash is slated for Apr. 7 (7 p.m.) at Canada Life Place.
