Hounds loss to Sting ‘stung’
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Natalie Shaver (OHLImages)
They say adversity offers the best environment to spur growth.
After Sunday, the Soo Greyhounds sure hope so.
On a day when four players suffered injuries – and three others were unable to dress to begin with – the Hounds had a late, game-tying goal disallowed after review.
The end result was a 2-1 loss to the Sarnia Sting in front of 3,325 at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
“Obviously it sucks,” said Hounds winger Justin Cloutier, who saw his apparent goal, at 19:27 of the final period, taken off the board.
“Every loss is tough,” added Travis Hayes, who had the lone Soo marker. “But this one stung a little bit more.”
The setback wrapped up a three-game road trip, dropping the Hounds to 1-4-0-0, heading into Friday’s (7:07 p.m.) home start against Kitchener.
“I’m gutted for the kids, but they’ll be okay,” said Hounds head coach John Dean, who watched the likes of starting goalie Charlie Schenkel, second-year defenceman Spencer Evans and rookies Brady Smith and Hunter Solomon all suffer injuries.
The team began the game minus veteran forwards Marco Mignosa and Chris Brown (both due to illness) and second-year defenceman Brodie McConnell-Barker (lower-body injury).
Despite all that, “the good news is we dug deep,” added Dean. “We found a way to tie the game, but got a little bit of tough luck. I don’t want to make (injury) excuses, but my point is our guys dug in.”
The coach went on to note how the Greyhounds found it tough not to find success on Sunday “but we showed some great character.”
Trailing 2-1 at 16:29 of the third period, the Hounds went on the power play when Sarnia’s Ruslan Karimov was handed a five-minute major and game misconduct for a check to the head on Solomon.
At 19:27, with Landon Miller, who replaced Schenkel, on the bench for a sixth attacker, the Soo struck.
Brady Martin and Andrew Gibson battled to keep the puck in at the point before Hayes made a slick goal-mouth feed to Cloutier. The Ottawa native redirected the pass home, over the glove of Sting goalie Evan Maillet. But after review, Hayes was deemed to be off-side – barely – at the Sarnia blue-line.
Hayes agreed with the call saying: “It was close, but looking at the (overhead) screen, I think they made the right call. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Obviously, it’s disappointing we couldn’t tie it up,” added Cloutier. “I really wanted to send it into overtime. I felt really good with the way our game was going and I thought we were going to win in OT.”
At 14:17 of the opening frame, Smith found himself on the receiving end of a hard, open-ice check delivered by Jack Bodin. The Sarnia player wasn’t penalized for the hit, a no-call Dean objected to.
“No, I don’t agree with it. (Smith) was susceptible,” the Soo coach added. “We felt it was a blind-side hit. These are things we’re trying to get out of the game. (The non-call) was very disappointing.”
Dean refused to speculate as to whether Smith suffered a concussion. He said he had no information immediately following the contest about the severity of Smith’s injury, or any of the others.
At 8:01 of the second period, Schenkel left the ice shaking his left hand after appearing to lose his glove and stick in a scramble. He was replaced by Miller, who was solid the rest of the way.
“Charlie didn’t feel comfortable going back in and he would be in there if he could,” Dean said.
Evans took what’s believed to be a puck in the face requiring dental attention. The Greyhounds hoped he would receive treatment in Sarnia before the team bus returned to the Sault.
The coach said he had no further information on Solomon, after the rookie was on the receiving end of the head check delivered by Karimov.
Solomon drew an assist, his first OHL point, on the visitors lone goal.
The Guelph native sent the puck up the right-wing boards to Hayes, who skated in on Maillet and fired from the top of the right circle. The goalie got a piece of it, but the puck trickled over the goal-line at 7:40 of the opening period.
Early in the second, Carter Kostuch won a battle behind the Soo goal and found a wide-open Tyson Doucette in front. The Sault product beat Schenkel stick side to tie the game.
Just 1:12 into the third, Sarnia’s Nathan Omeri’s blue-line shot went off the end boards before deflecting in off the skate of Miller. On a day when the home side held a 23-20 edge in shots, that capped the scoring.
Dean said Miller “made some big saves when he came in.”
Asked what his club learned from the disappointing setback, Dean talked of how “they know they can lean on the guy beside them,” while also pointing out “there’s a huge care factor on this team. And no matter the scenario, we have an opportunity to win a hockey game.”
“I think our guys are getting the hang of it,” added Cloutier. “This was one of our better structural games. I think we’re right there. Once we get one or two more wins, the ball is going to start rolling.”
Following Friday’s contest, the Hounds are set to visit Saginaw on Sunday (5:30 p.m.).