Miggy makes it happen
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo courtesy of Isabella Ruccolo @iruccolophotography_
GAME HIGHLIGHTS | GAME CENTRE
In a season pockmarked by injuries, where would the 2025-26 Soo Greyhounds be without Marco Mignosa?
“He’s the MVP of the league, it’s not even close in my opinion,” said Hounds head coach John Dean.
“He’s our MVP this year. He’s carried the team while I’ve been injured, 100 per cent,” added captain Brady Martin.
Mignosa scored three goals, including the overtime winner at 2:26, and also notched an assist on Thursday as the Hounds edged the Windsor Spitfires 4-3 in front of 5,289 at WFCU Centre.
The Spits had a chance to win it when Beksultan Makysh cut in on goal moments before Mignosa’s winner. However, the puck rolled off Makysh’s stick and Hounds netminder Carter George wasted no time in sending it up ice.
The result was a 3-on-1 with Lukas Fischer feeding Martin in the slot. The third-year centre found Mignosa on the right wing and the overage slipped the puck through the five-hole on netminder Joey Costanzo.
“That was massive,” said Mignosa, who increased his goals total to 34 while leading the Greyhounds to a much-needed victory. “Luckily, it went through his legs. A lot of credit goes to Carter – I’ve told him that already.”
Dean spoke of how he didn’t like the fact his club had given Makysh a good scoring chance.
“But it’s right on Carter’s stick and Carter is basically like having a fourth player on the ice,” the coach continued. “He sends it up ice really quickly. . . 3-on-1 and away we go with a nice tic-tac-toe.”
Owner of a 34-50-84 stat line with a plus-minus of plus-30, Mignosa “has been leaned on so much this season,” Dean noted, while pointing out how injuries/illness have sidelined the likes of Martin and defencemen Chase Reid, Jakub Winkelhofer, Callum Croskery and Brodie McConnell-Barker. “He’s had a number of different linemates and (then there’s) what he’s done on the penalty-kill. And all he does is come through in the clutch for us.”
The victory moved the Hounds (38-19-1-5), who are fourth in the Western Conference, to within six points of the third-place Spitfires (40-15-6-2) and both clubs have five games remaining.
Unfortunately for the Greyhounds, Windsor holds the first tie-breaker, with 37 victories coming in either regulation or overtime. The Soo has just 33.
Idle Flint (41-15-4-3) is second in the conference with 89 points and five games remaining. The Firebirds have 38 wins via regulation and overtime.
Perhaps more significant for the Greyhounds is the fact Thursday’s win moves them three points ahead of fifth-place London (37-21-4-1) in the race for home ice in at least the first round of the playoffs. The Knights, who were idle on Thursday, also have five games remaining. But London also holds the first tie-breaker advantage over the Greyhounds, 34-33.
While the Soo is slated to visit Flint on Friday (7 p.m.), London plays host to Guelph and Windsor travels to Sarnia.
Trailing 3-2 in the third, the Hounds tied the game at 9:09. With the teams skating 4-on-4, the Soo got a 3-on-2 break and Croskery found Mignosa. The overage skated in and slipped the puck through the five-hole on Costanzo to even the score 3-3.
On a night when Windsor held a 30-26 edge in shots, George made a huge save late in regulation. After a Soo turnover, AJ Spellacy skated in alone, but was thwarted by the Soo netminder with 1:45 remaining.
The visitors were outshot 11-0 over the first 12 minutes, before clawing their way back into the contest.
“From the drop of the puck, we were extremely engaged,” said Dean, whose club is set to entertain Windsor in the regular season finale, slated for a week from Sunday. “For the first 10 minutes, we were heavily outshot. But we weathered that storm and I really liked our last 50 minutes.”
The coach also talked about how his club gave up more chances than it would have liked.
“But over the last 50 minutes, I couldn’t have been prouder of our group.”
Martin spoke of how, over that time period, “we were dominant. This was big for us. We needed those two points to keep climbing the standings and stay ahead of London. It’s huge.”
Anthony Cristoforo opened the scoring, notching his first of two power-play goals by depositing a rebound past George at 9:16 of the opening frame.
Martin tied it, scoring on his team’s first shot on goal at 12:08. The captain took a feed from Mignosa and beat Costanzo high to the glove-hand side from the top of the right circle.
At 3:34 of the second, on the powerplay Mignosa snapped one past Costanzo on the short side to put his team in front.
But just 1:11 later, Cristoforo again connected with the man advantage, tapping home a rebound to make it 2-2.
Six minutes later, a Soo turnover inside the Windsor blue-line led to a 2-on-0 break for the home side. Caden Harvey went high glove to give his team a 3-2 advantage.
Martin finished with a goal and an assist while winning 17 of 26 face-offs. His line with Mignosa and Travis Hayes was outstanding.
“We played the way we know how,” offered Mignosa, who also spoke of how he and his teammates “definitely had swagger tonight.”
Liam Greentree and Jack Nesbitt finished with two assists each in defeat.
Notes:
The Hounds were again without Reid (upper body), McConnell-Barker (illness) and forward Colin Fitzgerald (upper body).
Windsor skated minus three key players, all due to injury: Ethan Belchetz, Cole Davis and Nathan Villeneuve.
