Hounds rally, secure dramatic shootout win
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
PHOTO GALLERY | GAME HIGHLIGHTS
To open Saturday’s shootout, Greyhounds centre Christopher Brown lost the handle, and could only direct the puck into the pads of Barrie goalie Ben Hrebik.
“A blessing in disguise,” said Soo head coach John Dean, whose next two shooters, Brady Martin and Marco Mignosa, took advantage of what they had just seen.
Both members of that duo connected, and Landon Miller was a perfect 2-for-2 on the shootout attempts he faced.
The result for the Hounds was a 4-3 win over the Colts in front of 3,643 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
Following overtime, OHL ice is not cleaned prior to the start of a shootout.
“I saw the puck bounce right over Brownie’s stick,” said Martin, the club’s captain. “GFL ice gets bad at the end of the game. I’d rank it at the bottom of the league.”
Because of that, “I was shooting,” added Martin, who skated in and beat Hrebik high to the glove-hand side, getting the Greyhounds on the shootout board.
Ditto for Mignosa, who also chose to go high glove side. His goal, after Kashawn Aitcheson and Emil Hemming came up dry for the visitors, clinched the victory.
“The ice made the decision for me. It was terrible ice. I wasn’t going to deke on that ice,” said Mignosa. “You could say it’s the worst ice in the league. Towards the end of periods it’s terrible.”
The come-from-behind win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Greyhounds, who’ll take a 12-8-1-0 record into Windsor on Thursday (7:05 p.m.), the start of a three-game trip.
On a night when they received standout netminding from Hrebik (Barrie was outshot 41-23), the Colts saw their six-game win streak come to an end.
They own a 9-7-0-4 mark.
“I’m so proud of my group,” said Dean, whose club dominated play for the third straight game on this homestand.
However, an inability to convert scoring chances and some costly miscues factored into last Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to Flint and Friday’s 4-2 setback at the hands of Guelph.
“This was a big-boy game,” added the Hounds coach. “We had to battle for space, battle for ice. It felt like a playoff game.”
Trailing 3-2 in the third – on another night when it seemed the Soo couldn’t buy a goal – Chase Reid connected on a 5-on-3 power play. From between the circles, at 14:07, the second-year rearguard went high glove side on Hrebik.
That came minutes after a power-play goal by Mignosa was disallowed due to goalie interference.
Jeremy Martin opened the scoring at 1:42 of the opening frame. His shot went off the end boards and deflected in off of Hrebik’s skate.
Ten minutes later, Barrie tied the game on a Cole Beaudoin power play marker. Miller had no chance on the play.
Just 1:31 later, Calvin Crombie beat his man to the net and redirected a Bode Stewart feed to make it 2-1.
Brad Gardiner, who led his team with a goal and two assists, made it 3-1 just 44 seconds into the middle frame. He won a face-off, picked up a loose puck and made a move around a sprawling Miller.
But at 2:11, the Soo tied it on Jordan Charron’s 15th of the season. His shot, through considerable traffic, went high stick side on a screened Hrebik.
Despite numerous good chances, the Hounds finished just 1-for-7 on the power play. They had opportunities to put the game away in regulation with the man advantage.
However, Dean liked what he saw from that unit.
“It’s not always about scoring the goal,” he said. “If there’s chance generation on the power play, I’m happy.”
“Our penalty-killers were phenomenal. They earned us a point,” said Colts head coach Dylan Smoskowitz, who lauded Hrebik. “He was the only other reason we got a point tonight. He was phenomenal.”
Brady Martin spoke of how he believed the Hounds dominated the contest.
“It was our game to win,” he added. “I’m very proud of how we came from behind.”
Travis Hayes, who took a vicious cross-check to the head from Barrie’s Gabriel Eliasson in the third period, but was okay afterward, spoke of his club’s character.
“This win shows we have a lot of heart and passion on this team,” he said. “We stuck with it the whole game and it feels really good.”
Eliasson was whistled off for a five-minute match penalty and game misconduct.
At the 20:00 mark of the final frame, players from both teams refused to leave the ice and the Soo’s Blake Arrowsmith was handed a two-minute minor for slashing and a game misconduct.
Of the apparent bad blood between the clubs, Hayes said: “Their guys were talking trash all game and we were giving it back.”
“Fans got an unbelievable display of OHL hockey,” added Dean, whose club also visits Kitchener on Friday (7 p.m.) and London on Sunday (2 p.m.).
Notes:
Hounds assistant coach Brendan Taylor won a gold medal Saturday at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Truro, N.S.
Taylor, an Oakville native, served as an assistant coach for Team Canada Red, a 6-3 winner in the final over Team Canada White.
Sault native Brock Chitaroni, a member of the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s, was a member of Team Canada White.
