Hounds suffer ‘heart-breaking loss’ in Brantford
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo courtesy of Brandon Taylor/ Brantford Bulldogs
In the end, a turnover proved costly.
But if hard work, effort and resiliency were the measuring sticks, the Soo Greyhounds could have skated away with a hard-fought victory on Sunday.
Yet, despite their efforts – including two short-handed goals in an 11-second span to help eliminate a 6-3 deficit and tie the game – the Hounds fell 8-6 to the Brantford Battalion in front of 3,207 at the Brantford Civic Centre.
“This is the most heart-breaking loss this season. This is tough,” lamented Hounds head coach John Dean, whose team was in control for the better part of the game, holding a 44-33 edge in shots. “I thought we deserved a better fate and we were the better hockey team, which makes it really difficult.”
“Super-tough pill to swallow,” added winger Marco Mignosa. “To lose like that is not fun.”
That’s especially true against a team that improved to 34-16-5-0, including a gaudy 16-1-1-0 over its last 18 games.
Was this the Greyhounds toughest loss this season?
“You could say that,” Mignosa answered. “Down 6-3, we had a great bounce back. I think a lot of teams would have rolled over and everybody would have gone on their own script.”
Tied 6-6 with time winding down, netminder Noah Tegelaar coughed the puck up behind his own goal. The rookie hesitated while trying to move the puck and was stripped by Brantford’s Josh Avery. A quick pass found Noah Nelson all alone in front and the home side had a 7-6 lead with 1:24 left in regulation.
Jake O’Brien added an empty-netter to cap the scoring.
“One play doesn’t make a career,” said Dean, who spoke of how the Hounds rallied around Tegelaar, despite the miscue. “These are learning opportunities for a young goaltender. My guess is he’ll never make that mistake again.”
The loss dropped the eighth-place Hounds to 21-32-1-1, good for 44 points with 13 regular season games remaining. Owen Sound also lost on Monday. The Attack is ninth in the Western Conference with 43 points and 14 games left.
Tenth-place Guelph was a Monday winner, moving to 41 points with 16 games remaining.
Sarnia, holding sixth place, also lost. The Sting has 47 points and 14 games to play.
Trailing 6-3 in the third, Justin Cloutier circled into the slot before beating goalie Ryerson Leenders high to the glove side at 11:10.
While killing off a Hunter Solomon penalty, Mignosa gobbled up a turnover and scored high glove side at 13:37.
His 25th tally made it 6-5.
Moments later, Travis Hayes shot from a bad angle on the left wing. The puck appeared to hit Leenders in the mask, deflecting in on the short side for the winger’s 16th. The Greyhounds league-leading 15th short-handed marker made it 6-6 at 13:48.
Hayes has a 5-7-12 stat line over his last nine games.
“That was awesome, so awesome,” Dean said of the back-to-back, short-handed tallies.
Meantime, having given the Bulldogs all it could handle for 40 minutes, the Hounds surrendered goals 30-seconds apart to fall into that 6-3 hole.
While holding a 29-21 edge in shots through two periods, the Hounds trailed 4-3. But on the rush, Brady Martin had the puck poked away from him at centre ice, sending the Battalion away on a 2-on-1. Patrick Thomas found Cole Brown on the right side and Brown went high to the glove side on Landon Miller to make it 5-3 at 2:23.
Seconds later, Chase Reid was caught up ice at the Brantford blue-line leading to another 2-on-1. Again, Thomas fed Brown on the right side and the veteran scored on the glove side.
Miller left at that point, replaced by Tegelaar, making his second OHL appearance.
Cloutier scored twice, including a power-play goal, and has 25 on the season. Mignosa had a goal and two assists. Reid and Noel Nordh had a goal and an assist each while Caeden Carlisle contributed two assists.
Brown scored three times for the winners while Lardis finished with a goal and four assists. O’Brien finished with a goal and two assists while Tomas Hamera scored once and set up another. Thomas Budnick also scored once while Patrick Thomas notched three assists.
“This was definitely tough to take,” said Cloutier, whose club is preparing to play seven straight at home beginning with Friday’s 7:07 p.m. start against Guelph. “We definitely showed no quit. This was one game I thought we could have stolen. But I’m definitely proud of my teammates.”
