Mignosa: Blowing two-goal lead ‘stinks’
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
FULL PHOTO GALLERY | VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
Self-inflicted mistakes proved disastrous for the Soo Greyhounds on Friday.
Defensive-zone miscues in the final period erased a 2-0 lead, and resulted in the Flint Firebirds securing a 3-2 victory over the Hounds in front of 3,894 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
“Blowing a 2-0 lead is terrible,” said Hounds winger Marco Mignosa, whose club takes an 11-9-0-0 mark into Sunday’s 2:07 p.m. home ice start against Windsor (14-5-1-0).
The Spits lost 9-3 in Sudbury on Friday.
“A couple of breakdowns killed us and it stinks,” Mignosa added. “This was a winnable game and we had it marked on our calendars.”
In head-to-head play with Flint, the Soo was 3-0 against the division rival heading into Friday’s clash.
“The way Flint came back is unacceptable,” shrugged defenceman Brodie McConnell-Barker.
While agreeing his team didn’t play well, head coach John Dean spoke of fatigue as a factor.
“We looked exhausted, to be honest,” said Dean, whose club was playing its eighth game in 17 days and has played a Wednesday contest for five straight weeks. “I definitely don’t want to make excuses, there were lots of miscues and lots of mental mistakes. But we looked like a very tired group.”
Trailing 2-0 to begin the third period, the Firebirds cut the Hounds lead in half just eight seconds in. Caeden Carlisle’s turnover in front of his own net led to Kaden Pitre banging his own rebound past Charlie Schenkel.
“That’s a poor mistake at the start of the period, but I still think we can rebound from that,” Dean said.
The coach went on to express disappointment over the way the game was handled by on-ice officials.
He spoke of how a linesman he didn’t name “clearly wanted to get involved in the game.”
With the home team still up 2-1, Flint’s Matthew Wang was whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct at 6:47 of the third.
“We’re about to go on the power play and he (the linesman) decides to call a too-many-men penalty against us. He was actually in the way of our guy changing,” Dean continued. “It wasn’t close to being too many men, but unfortunately, he wanted to be part of the game.”
Skating 4-on-4, Flint tied the game at 7:14. All four Greyhounds went to the right-wing corner, leaving Blake Smith all alone in front.
He took a feed from Chris Thibodeau and Schenkel had no chance on the play.
Just two minutes after that, at 9:14, all five Hounds were in the right-wing corner area when Smith was again wide open. The feed was delivered by Matthew Mania and Smith, from the left circle, ripped it home on the glove side.
That proved to be the winner.
“That was absolutely a character win,” said Firebirds head coach Paul Flache, whose club snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 8-11-0-1. “Pitre’s goal was big. . . the guys got some juice from it. And they responded in the third.”
Dean said the Hounds were overly aggressive on the last two Flint goals.
“We have to play better,” the coach added. “That’s not a great game for us. We’re mentally fatigued and we made a lot of mental mistakes in the third period. But we definitely should have found a way to win that game.”
The home side opened the scoring at 3:38 of the second period. Spencer Evans fed Mignosa on the left side and the veteran winger was allowed to walk into the circle. He beat Noah Bender on the blocker side for his sixth goal of the season.
On the powerplay, Brady Smith, who assisted on Mignosa’s goal, made it 2-0 at 6:02. Andrew Gibson set the play up and, from the slot, Smith ripped a shot past Bender on the glove side.
Schenkel combined with Justin Cloutier on an impressive save, stopping Pitre in front of the Hounds net at 17:26 of the middle stanza.
The Soo wound up outshooting the visitors 24-23.
Heading into the Windsor contest, McConnell-Barker said the Greyhounds “have to put this loss behind us. We have to look ahead. We need to play a full 60 minutes on Sunday and keep it simple.”
Notes:
The Hounds released overage forward Justin DeZoete on Friday, whittling their OA complement to three.
“It’s very difficult,” Dean said of seeing DeZoete, who had a goal and four assists in 17 games, depart. “He’s extremely well-liked in the dressing room and by the staff. He competed his butt off.”
As well, third-string goaltender Reid Thomas was assigned to the Blind River Beavers of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League.
Overage Owen Allard and fellow forwards Christopher Brown and Charlie Hilton remain sidelined with upper-body injuries.
