Miller, Hounds shutout Spirit to start off roadtrip
GAME HIGHLIGHTS | FULL PHOTO GALLERY (to be posted Thursday)
Photo by Natalie Shaver (OHLImages) | Audio for quotes provided by Brad Coccimiglio (Sootoday.com)
On a night when the Soo Greyhounds start was slower then they would have preferred, netminder Landon Miller stood tall and provided the calming influence the team needed.
Starting off their three-game road trip Wednesday Night in Saginaw, the Hounds killed off three shorthanded situations in the first period, including a 5-on-3 against that last 1:23 before hitting the reset button.
“I thought the first obviously was not up to our standards. It was a slow start. I think anytime you take that many penalties you give the opposition a lot of momentum even though we did a good job killing them” started Assistant Coach Brendan Taylor.
“We started to trust our game plan and throughout the last 40 minutes we got better and better and I thought we played a dynamite team game in the third”
The Hounds were outshot 16-4 in the opening frame but remained on even terms with Saginaw.
Just 0:45 seconds into the second period Miller made one of his many highlight reel saves when he got a left pad on Saginaw’s Kristian Epperson which was the start of the Spirit’s six shots in the opening three minutes alone.
The Hounds fourth penalty kill of the game just 2:58 into the middle period may have very built momentum for the visiting club.
While shorthanded Marco Mignosa and Owen Allard were part off a 2-on-1 that bounced away before Justin Cloutier had a partial breakaway that resulted in a Zayne Parekh penalty to negate the remaining shorthanded time.
Scoring would open at 11:11 of the period when Marco Mignosa fed the puck from behind the Spirit net up the wall to Captain Caeden Carlisle who quickly moved it back to the left point for Owen Allard.
There, Allard – who was playing in his 2nd game back after being sidelined with injury – curled at the blueline and took available room closer to the dots before putting the puck past the glove of Andrew Oke to give the Hounds the 1-0 lead.
For Allard it was his 4th goal of the season in eight games played, and ninth point.
The Greyhounds would use the final sixty-second of the second period to build their momentum heading into the third period with a one-goal lead.
Saginaw outshot the Hounds just 14-13 in the second period.
Few whistles were heard in the start of the third period and the Greyhounds held Saginaw to a single shot in the opening ten minutes of the period.
Miller preserved the lead later on making a sliding save on Will Bishop and in the final minutes the Hounds would reward him.
“I thought Millsy (Landon Miller) was terrific. He really held us in in the first period with all the penalties we took, I thought he was outstanding on the 5-on-3 particular. But really held us in the game and allowed us to regroup in the first and find our game because he was playing so well” began Taylor.
“I’m really pleased for Millsy and without him we don’t win the game, we don’t get out of the game even. I thought he was terrific”
With 1:01 to go in regulation Justin Cloutier spun from his side of centre and fired home his 13th goal of the season into an empty net to seal the Hounds the 2-0 road victory.
The point was Cloutier’s 24th of the season and moved him into a tie for the team lead with Brady Martin.
The win snapped a four-game losing skid for the Hounds and improved their overall record to 13-13-0-0, good for 26 points.
It also improved their record to 3-1-0-0 against Saginaw. Since dropping the season opening game 6-4, the Hounds have won three-in-a-row against their division opponent by scores of 3-2 (Oct. 13 @SAG), 5-3 (Oct. 23 vs SAG) and the tonight’s 2-0 shutout victory.
When asked about the Hounds record against Saginaw, Taylor commented.
‘I don’t know if I chalk it up to anything in particular. We obviously are familiar with their style of play, their players, the rivalry in divisiona and seven game series last year”
He added, ‘I think it’s two teams who know each other very well, who try to exploit and attach each others weaknesses. We’ve done a good jof that so far. Every game with them has been close in score and hard fought in play”
The Hounds will now use Thursday to practice before travelling into Kitchener for their next stop.
Friday Night (Dec. 6) will be the team’s final regular season visit to the Memorial Auditorium and third meeting of the year with each team having won once.
Game time is set for 7 PM and you can hear all the action on Rock 101 (101.3 FM or online) or watch on RogersTV.
