Lead slips away, Hounds lose in OT

by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by soogreyhounds.com

Extra time came back to bite the Soo Greyhounds again on Saturday.

After winning once in overtime and once via a shootout earlier this month, the Soo Greyhounds struggles beyond regulation time returned in Guelph.

Braeden Bowman’s second goal of the game, at 1:35 of overtime, gave the Storm a come-from-behind, 5-4 victory over the Hounds before 4,354 at Sleeman Centre.

“It’s difficult to swallow, because we blew a chance to win a hockey game,” said Soo head coach John Dean, whose team had lost eight overtime or shootout games in a row prior to its two wins in early December.

“That’s a tough way to lose a game. Obviously, that’s not the result we wanted,” added centre Jordan D’Intino, whose club enters the OHL Christmas break with a 10-12-5-4 record, good for 29 points.

That’s good for seventh place in the Western Conference pending the result of Kitchener’s (14-13-0-0) game in Mississauga Sunday afternoon. Like Kitchener, Guelph has 28 points, after improving to 12-16-3-1 following its Saturday victory.

“We were better than last night. But with a 4-3 lead going into the third period, we have to learn to protect it,” added D’Intino, whose club struggled mightily on Friday, losing 9-0 in Kitchener.

“We came back today (Saturday) with more compete,” added winger Marco Mignosa, whose team rallied from a 3-1 deficit with an impressive showing in the second period in Guelph. “After that big loss last night, the guys really wanted this one. It’s unfortunate we only got the one point. But a couple of unforced errors wound up in the back of the net.”

After eliminating their two-goal deficit and fighting their way into a 3-3 tie, the Greyhounds took their first lead of the day at 17:00 of the second period.

Working on the power play, Mark Duarte took a feed from Bryce McConnell-Barker in the right circle before beating Jacob Oster with a one-timer on the short side. That gave the visitors the advantage entering the final 20 minutes.

However, Ryan Thompson’s roughing minor at 8:39 of the final frame proved disastrous.

Just six seconds into the Storm power play, Max Namestnikov notched his second goal of the game, firing from the right circle and beating Samuel Ivanov high to the glove-hand side. That evened the score at 4-4.

“I loved our first half of the third period,” said Dean, whose club was outshot 36-29. “But then we took a really-poor penalty and we found ourselves in a lot of penalty trouble in the second half of the period. It took away a lot of momentum for us.”

Trailing 3-1, the visitors began their comeback at 8:40 of the second period. Landen Hookey tapped in the rebound of a Connor Toms point shot to trim the Soo’s deficit to 3-2. Four minutes later, Mignosa redirected an Andrew Gibson shot past Oster to tie the score.

For Mignosa, his third goal of the season snapped a streak of 15 straight without finding the back of the net.

The Vaughan, Ont., native also contributed a pair of assists and was a standout for the Greyhounds.

“I needed that one going into the break,” said Mignosa, who had 13 goals in 55 games in his rookie season.

In overtime, Namestnikov won a puck battle from Toms along the boards in the neutral zone. His backhand pass sprung Bowman on a breakaway and the second-year forward fired home the winner on the glove side.

Ivanov made some big saves for the visitors after getting dinged for five goals in 40 minutes the previous night.

Dean spoke of how his veteran goalie “tends to respond very well after a tough night.”

Namestnikov was the best player on the ice with two assists to go along with his two goals. Jake Karabela, on the power play, had the other goal for the winners while standout rearguard Michael Buchinger contributed three assists.

D’Intino had the other goal for the Greyhounds while both McConnell-Barker and Gibson finished with a pair of assists.

“The effort was there. I can’t argue with the effort we gave after a real tough night the day before,” Dean said. “But I didn’t love our execution.”

Asked about his read on how the first half of the season wrapped up, the coach spoke of approaching every day with positivity.

“I think we’ve had a great stretch here, despite some turbulence,” said Dean, whose team had four wins – all against quality opponents – in five starts prior to this two-game trip. “I think we’ve identified what brings us success. I’m really proud with how far we’ve come. But at the same time, I think we’ve got a lot more.”

The Soo is set to return to action on Dec. 28 (7 p.m.) in Flint.

Notes:
Hounds rearguard Kirill Kudryavtsev sat out the game following news his friend, London Knights player Abakar Kazbekov, had died earlier in the day.