Hounds play well, but lose to 67s
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
If the hockey gods were overly charitable to the Soo Greyhounds on Monday afternoon, they evened things up Friday night
That was the reaction of head coach John Dean, following his team’s hard-fought, 2-1 loss to the Ottawa 67s in front of 3,662 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
“We didn’t deserve to win in Windsor, but probably deserved to win tonight,” said Dean, whose club controlled much of the game against the 67s, following a less-than-ideal performance in a 5-3 victory over the Spitfires. “The hockey gods decided to take one away from us, which is fine. It happens.”
Dean spoke of how well his team performed on a night when it outshot the visitors 33-19, while holding Ottawa to a single shot in the final period.
“I liked our O-zone time, I liked our compete, I liked our effort,” said the Soo coach, whose club takes a 5-2-0-0 mark into Saturday’s 7:07 p.m. home start against Owen Sound. “No doubt we out-played them. It was one of our better games and I hope these guys know how proud I am of them.”
“I think we played well enough to win,” added captain Bryce McConnell-Barker, whose club notched a power-play goal on a 5-on-3 in the final period to draw to within a single goal. “We gave up too many odd-man rushes and a couple of mistakes cost us. But all around we played a good game. We can’t hang our heads.”
In many ways, 67s netminder Collin MacKenzie was the story, making a number of big saves in tight against the highest-scoring team in the league.
At the other end of the ice, Greyhounds netminder Charlie Schenkel allowed a couple of goals on shots he probably should have stopped.
“I think he should have had both,” said Dean. “I think this was a great opportunity for us to win a tight game and I think everybody’s got to be on. But we had mistakes in all three zones.”
Schenkel called his performance on Friday “a learning experience. There were a couple of tough bounces, but you learn from it. But I think we had a great team effort.”
Hounds centre Owen Allard was quick to support his teammate.
“He can’t stop them all,” Allard said in defence of his goalie. “Nobody’s perfect. We have each other’s back and I think he played well enough for us to win.”
Asked about MacKenzie’s play, Ottawa coach Dave Cameron certainly liked what he saw.
“He was real solid,” said the former Greyhounds head coach, whose club improved to 3-2-0-0. “We needed him tonight and he rose to the occasion. He was a big part of the win.”
Trailing 2-0 in the final frame, the Soo had a golden opportunity to tie the game or take the lead.
Sixteen seconds after taking a minor penalty, Ottawa was penalized again when Derek Smyth was tagged with a five-minute major and game misconduct for cross-checking at 5:22.
On the ensuing 5-on-3, Jack Beck made a slick feed to Arttu Karki on the right side of the 67s goal. Karki beat MacKenzie on a one-timer for his sixth goal of the season – and fourth with the man advantage.
With the score 2-1, the Soo still had 3:41 of power-play time remaining.
However, they could do very little with it.
“It’s the first time this season I saw our guys holding their sticks tight,” said Dean. “That’s the first time we were timid with the puck.”
“That was huge,” McConnell-Barker, who won 17 of 24 face-offs, said of his club’s failure to convert.
In that situation “you want to at least tie the game or maybe take the lead,” he added.
Allard said he thought the Hounds deserved a better fate.
“One-hundred per cent,” he noted. “I thought we played a really-good 60-minute game. But we ran into a hot goalie.”
The visitors opened the scoring just 41 seconds into the second period. The Hounds were unable to move the puck out along the right-wing boards when Sault native Cooper Foster found Will Gerrior in the slot.
His shot beat Schenkel through the five-hole.
The 67s connected on the power-play at 13:11 of the middle frame. Frankie Marrelli found Gerrior at the top of the left face-off circle and he fired one home five-hole to make it 2-0.
“We played a real solid road game,” said Cameron. “I liked our compete, our positional play and our D-zone poise. We didn’t panic.”
Notes:
Hounds winger Connor Clattenburg made his season debut after missing the first five games with a suspension, and the last contest due to injury.
