Hounds show ‘fight’ in trip opener
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Terry Wilson (OHLImages)
Winning – especially when you play well – can be a magic elixir.
The Soo Greyhounds certainly hope so.
With 13 regular season games remaining, including two on the road over the next three days, the Hounds need to build off of Thursdays 5-2 win over the Niagara IceDogs.
While welcoming back forward Owen Allard and defenceman Connor Toms, the Soo broke a three-game losing streak in front of 3,542 at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines.
“This is a really-important win as we’re trying to climb back into the playoff race,” said Hounds winger Justin Cloutier, who scored twice to help his team move to within three points of eighth-place Kitchener in the OHL’s Western Conference. “The boys worked really hard and we really deserved this win.”
“Our start was an indicator there’s still a lot of fight left in this team,” added head coach John Dean, whose club dominated the opening 10 minutes, outshooting the home side 10-0, en route to improving to 17-24-9-5 overall. “When you’re in ruts like this, you always wonder what kind of a start you’re going to get. But we got pucks deep, we were extremely competitive and we showed some offensive flair.”
Kitchener (24-26-3-0) has two games in hand on the Greyhounds, who’re slated to visit the Rangers in a critical 2 p.m. Sunday matchup. Before that, however, the Soo travels to Guelph for a 7:30 p.m. Friday face-off.
Kitchener plays host to Owen Sound on Friday.
“I think it was a good performance overall. We played a good game,” added Dean, whose club had blown a 4-0 lead last Saturday, before losing 6-5 in overtime to Erie. “The way things have gone lately, we’ll take that 60 minutes all day.”
“I think we had a great start to the game. The boys were putting in the work and we were detailed,” added Allard, who had two assists playing in his first game of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery in early October. “It definitely feels really good to be back.”
Toms, meanwhile, had missed the previous 22 games after suffering a lower-body injury on Dec. 28 in Flint.
The contributions of both, Allard’s especially, were obvious.
“Getting them back made a big impact,” said Dean, whose team plays eight of its final 13 games on home ice. “It’s more difficult to have an impact on the defensive side, but Connor was good. Allard brought speed and an engine. He might have been the best player on the ice.”
With the teams tied 2-2, the Hounds got a key goal late in the second period. Matthew Virgilio held the puck in at the point and fed defence partner Caeden Carlisle on the left wing. Carlisle skated in and beat IceDogs goalie Owen Flores through the five-hole.
That made it 3-2 at the 18:08 mark.
Then, very early in the third, the visitors opened up a two-goal advantage.
After Hounds rearguard Ryan Thompson broke up a scoring chance by the IceDogs Zakary Lavoie, the Greyhounds transitioned quickly. On a 2-on-1, Kalvyn Watson fed Bryce McConnell-Barker on the left wing and the Hounds captain notched his 28th of the season.
That made it 4-2 at the :25 mark.
“Especially when you’re trying to protect a one-goal lead, to score on your first shift of the period, that was obviously a huge goal by Bryce,” said Dean.
After netminder Charlie Schenkel came up big in the late stages of the contest, Cloutier notched a short-handed, empty-net goal at the 19:28 mark. That capped the scoring.
The goal was Cloutier’s 13th of the season and sixth over his last seven games.
As they exploded out of the gate, the Greyhounds opened a 2-0, first period lead.
Cloutier gobbled up the rebound of a Thompson shot in the left face-off circle and beat Flores up high to make it 1-0 at the 9:18 mark.
Just 25 seconds later, following a Niagara turnover, Allard found Julian Fantino at the side of the goal and Fantino redirected it home for a 2-0 Soo lead.
Less than two minutes later, the home team got back into the game. Off of a face-off, Daniel Michaud beat Schenkel on the short side to cut the Hounds lead in half.
The IceDogs tied the game at 13:17 of the second period following a turnover by McConnell-Barker. On the ensuing 2-on-1, Lavoie set up Ryan Vanetten, who was alone at the side of the goal. He converted to make it 2-2.
Thompson was among the Soo’s standouts defensively, while also contributing two assists on a night when the visitors held a 48-27 edge in shots.
With the setback, the IceDogs fell to 11-36-7-1.
Meantime, 10th-place Erie (18-30-1-2) dropped a 5-1 decision to Barrie on Thursday, falling seven points back of the Greyhounds. The Otters do have a game in hand.
Heading into Guelph and Kitchener, Cloutier spoke of how “net use” was key against Niagara and would have to play a big role the rest of the trip.
“We had a huge net presence. We were sending pucks to the net,” he added. “We usually win games when we use the net really well and maintain O-zone time. We’ll have to do that in Guelph and Kitchener.”
Indicative of the Hounds desperation and the need to narrow their focus heading into Guelph, Dean spoke of how “I’ve already forgotten about this game.”
