Hounds use opportunistic PK to bury Bulldogs
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo courtesy of Brandon Taylor (Brantford Bulldogs)
They’re called penalty-killers, but the Soo Greyhounds PK skaters were more like assassins on Friday.
Jordan D’Intino notched a pair of short-handed goals, both set up by Marco Mignosa, and the Hounds killed off a five-minute major in the second period when the outcome was still very much in doubt.
They took complete control after that, cruising to an impressive 8-2 victory over the Brantford Bulldogs in front of 3,118 at the Brantford Civic Centre.
“We have the best penalty-killing in the league and it was the story of the night as far as I’m concerned,” said head coach John Dean, whose team got a goal and three assists from Mignosa, helping the Soo to rebound from a 3-2 overtime loss in Erie one night earlier. “Penalty-killing changed the game for us.”
“I’d say it feels sweeter when you score shorthanded. Scoring two tonight feels really good, obviously,” added D’Intino, who scored his short-handed markers late in the first period and early in the second. “Our PK has been really solid for us lately and it’s been the backbone for us all year.”
After blanking Brantford on four power-play opportunities, the Hounds have successfully killed off 87.0 per cent this season. That’s second in the league, behind only Saginaw (87.1). The Soo also has five short-handed tallies.
Meantime, the victory improved the Hounds record to 14-7-2-0, five points up on the second-place Spirit (12-7-0-1) in the West Division, but Saginaw does have three games in hand.
“We needed to win tonight. We were super pumped to play and we played our hearts out,” said Mignosa, whose team was disappointed with its performance in Erie.
The Bulldogs carried a 6-0-1-0 record over their last seven games into Friday’s contest. But Dean spoke of how the Greyhounds cooled off their opponents with a memorable performance against them.
“Fantastic game. That was probably our second, 60-minute game of the year,” said Dean, whose club led 2-1 after 20 minutes and 4-2 through two periods. “We got a really-solid 60 minutes from all 20 guys.”
Asked what he liked most, the coach didn’t know where to begin.
“Everything,” Dean answered. “Puck management, getting above pucks, winning 50-50 battles, winning the blue paint at both ends, showing our swagger while competing and not changing our style despite the score.”
The Soo coach also used the word “fantastic” to describe the play of netminder Landon Miller.
“He’s energetic, he really scraps, you can feel it on the bench,” Dean added.
With the clubs locked in a 1-1 tie in the opening period, D’Intino went to work. With Andrew Gibson off for high-sticking, Mignosa took the puck away from a Bulldogs player and fed D’Intino for a breakaway. The London, Ont., native beat goalie David Egorov on the stick side to make it 2-1 at 18:03.
With Brady Martin whistled for hooking, Mignosa stripped an opponent in the left corner and centered the puck to D’Intino. The overage made a forehand-to-backhand move to give the visitors a 3-1 lead at 2:42 of the second period.
“Those two goals were huge. They changed the momentum,” offered Dean.
A Noah Nelson redirection beat Miller to make it 3-2 a minute later. But Jack Beck made it 4-2 at the 6:48 mark and the Soo scored four unanswered goals in the final frame to wrap it up.
“It starts with Brendan Taylor,” said Mignosa, crediting the assistant coach who works with the PK units. “He tells us to be super aggressive forechecking. We were targeting their D carrying it out and it paid off tonight.”
“I’ve been getting quite a few breakaways lately, so to bear down and finally bury two feels really nice,” added D’Intino.
Mignosa opened the scoring midway through the first period after Owen Allard cleanly won a draw. Mignosa quickly let fly from the top of the left circle, beating Egorov high to the stick side.
The Bulldogs tied it five minutes later when Cole Brown went high to Miller’s blocker side.
On a night when the Soo held a 31-26 edge in shots, D’Intino finished with two goals and an assist while Justin Cloutier scored once and set up two more. Allard and Beck added a goal and an assist each while Travis Hayes and Arttu Karki also scored.
Karki’s goal was his 15th of the season, tops among OHL defencemen, and league-leading 10th on the power play.
With the loss, Brantford fell to 10-8-3-1.
The Hounds wrap up their three-game trip with a Sunday (4 p.m.) clash in Mississauga.
The Steelheads defeated Peterborough 7-1 on Friday to improve to 13-7-0-0.
“We were really good tonight,” noted D’Intino. “We’ve been preaching a full 60 for a while now and I think we did that. That’s how we want to play and finish games off.”
