Knights edge ‘structured’ Greyhounds
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Wild Ave Photography
While agreeing turnovers and an inability to convert on the power play were decisive, the head coach of the Soo Greyhounds saw far more positives than negatives on Friday.
“We’re starting to move in the right direction,” said John Dean, despite the fact his club fell 4-3 to the London Knights in front of 9,061 at Canada Life Place. “That was one of the more structured games we’ve played all season long. I liked our O-zone play, I liked our fight to get to the blue paint, I liked how we blocked shots 5-on-5, I loved the battle from our group.”
Dean, who saw his team’s five-game win streak snapped, admitted the Hounds are “still not where we want to be. But man, we did a lot of good things tonight.”
Winger Marco Mignosa agreed.
“That was one of our better games this year,” said the four-year veteran, who was an offensive threat throughout the contest. “There are a lot of positive things we can take from that game. We battled as a team.”
Asked about the miscues which led to the Knights second and third goals, centre Chris Brown offered a candid answer.
“Turnovers hurt us big time,” said Brown, whose club fell to 8-6-0-0 heading into Saturday’s 7 p.m. start in Flint against the 6-6-0-1 Firebirds. “We need to play smarter and be there for each other.”
“We have to be a lot crisper in transition. . . we’re shooting ourselves in the foot with turnovers,” added Dean, whose squad trailed from the outset. “We weren’t under duress. We weren’t hard on pucks and we committed unforced errors.”
While the Soo power play has been better of late, the visitors missed a golden opportunity late in the third period.
Trailing 4-3 and with London’s Jacob Julien whistled for holding at 16:01, the Hounds failed to register a power-play shot.
The power-play unit “has to wear that one,” said Mignosa, of a unit that was 0-for-3 Friday, falling to 4-for-47 on the season. “We had three scoring chances. We’ve got to get shots on goal, start getting pucks to the paint and getting dirty.”
Dean also lamented the power play’s inability to convert.
“It continues to be a major source of stress for us,” the coach said. “It could have been the difference tonight, but unfortunately we continue to struggle in that department. We don’t play with pace on the power play.”
Trailing 4-2 in the third, the Hounds closed to within a single goal by taking advantage of a Knights giveaway. Brown gobbled up the turnover and fired from the right circle. His shot deflected off the post and past Austin Elliott on the stick side to make it 4-3 with 5:10 left in regulation.
The visitors pushed late, taking Landon Miller out for an extra attacker, but were unable to draw even.
On a night when the home side held a 37-33 edge in shots, the win for London was its fifth straight as the club improved to 9-4-0-0.
The Knights scored the only goal of the opening frame on a delayed penalty call at 13:20. From the left side of the net, Sam O’Reilly fed Landon Sim whose one-timer from the slot beat Miller on the glove side.
A Greyhounds turnover at their blue-line resulted in the second Knights goal. At 4:52 of the middle frame, Julien sent the puck ahead to Blake Arrowsmith and he went high glove side from the slot.
London coughed the puck up while exiting its zone two minutes later. Noel Nordh fed Mignosa, who put his own rebound past Elliot on the glove side.
Just 91-seconds later, the Hounds turned it over and Miller was unable to cover the puck during a scramble in front. Ryder Boulton went up high to make it 3-1 at 8:20.
Early in the third, Miller made a slick glove save on a breakaway attempt by the Knights Henry Brzustewicz.
Later, Justin Cloutier cut the Soo’s deficit to 3-2 on an impressive individual effort. Cloutier came out of the left corner, evaded a couple of defenders and scored high on the blocker side at the 6:26 mark.
But London scored the game’s lone power-play goal less than two minutes later. With Brodie McConnell-Barker off for tripping, Easton Cowan’s back pass found Julien all alone in the left circle. Miller had little chance on a shot that beat him glove side. That made it 4-2.
Dean praised Miller’s effort saying his netminder “played another great game.”
The coach was critical of the officiating, pointing out how the Knights enjoyed a 5-on-3 power play for the fourth consecutive game.
So concerned about what his team would face, Dean said he actually prepared his club to defend a 5-on-3, assuming it would happen again on Friday.
“Unfortunately, we were playing against two teams,” the Soo coach added.
“I thought we played with a lot of pride tonight,” said Brown. “We were on them for a lot of the game.”
Following the Flint clash, the Hounds are slated to entertain the Knights on Wednesday (7:07 p.m.) at GFL Memorial Gardens.
