Miscues momentous in Soo setback
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
For every burst of excitement from the Soo Greyhounds on Friday, there was a corresponding blast of anguish.
Three costly mistakes spoiled a dominant second period and a strong effort overall by the Hounds, who dropped a 5-2 decision to the Guelph Storm before 3,301 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
The setback became more significant when coupled with Kitchener’s 4-1 victory over Erie.
Having lost four in a row, the Soo (17-27-9-6) is nine points back of the Rangers (27-26-4-0) in the battle for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Hounds have nine regular season games remaining, including Saturday’s 7:07 p.m. home start against Oshawa.
Kitchener has 11 games left on its schedule.
“It’s extremely frustrating. Our mistakes are killing us right now,” said winger Julian Fantino.
“That was the story of the game,” head coach John Dean said of the miscues. “Three really big mistakes end up in the back of our net. We battled, we scrapped. But when it rains, it pours sometimes.”
The most critical mistake came late in the second period. After the Hounds had controlled the frame and scored twice to forge a 2-2 tie, they allowed Guelph to go back in front.
With time winding down, Fantino, instead of moving forward with the puck, sent it deeper into the Hounds zone. Owen Allard skated it behind the net and tried to pin it along the end boards. But Cooper Walker managed to strip it away and – with no Hounds player in sight – skate in front and beat Charlie Schenkel high to the glove side.
The goal, with 2.3 seconds remaining, put the Storm ahead heading into the second intermission.
“That was tough, there’s no doubt about it,” Dean said.
The coach explained how “the puck has to go North to start. The puck didn’t need to go backwards.”
Dean went on to discuss how Allard made a “fatigue mistake. He was completely exhausted, the puck had been in our end for so long.”
By the time the puck is turned over, the Hounds would have expected everyone to sprint back to defend their goal.
“But by that time, we’re too spread out and the damage is done,” Dean added.
“You can’t let a late goal go in like that in the last minute,” said Fantino. “It kills momentum.”
Storm head coach Chad Wiseman was asked about the significance of Walker’s goal at that point in the game.
“I thought we got out-worked and out-competed in the second period. But that’s what Cooper Walker does,” said Wiseman, whose team won its sixth straight to improve to 30-24-4-1. “He works, he competes, he stays above pucks. That was a huge momentum swing.”
Protecting a 3-2 lead in the final period, the Storm scored a pair of late, empty-net markers.
Ryan McGuire, with his second goal of the game at 18:47, and Chandler Romeo, with an empty-net, short-handed tally at 19:52, capped the scoring.
Schenkel committed the home side’s first mistake, settling too deep into his goal before a bad-angle shot by Charlie Paquette beat him high to the glove-hand side at 4:57 of the opening period.
Rookie rearguard Matt Virgilio committed a costly turnover in front of his own goal four minutes later.
McGuire grabbed the puck in the high slot and, with no one near him, rifled a shot up high to make it 2-0.
The second period clearly belonged to the Hounds, who outshot the visitors 17-9 in the frame and 34-26 overall.
Cloutier took a feed from Mark Duarte and ripped a shot past Patrick Leaver from the left face-off-circle at 5:19 of the middle frame. In beating the Storm goalie high to the short side, Cloutier registered his 14th goal of the season and ninth in his last 16 games.
Just under 12 minutes later, Brenden Sirizzotti stripped the puck from a Guelph defender, crossed the blue-line on the right wing and blistered a shot that beat Leaver on the blocker side.
Sirizzotti finished with a goal and an assist and has a 12-18-30 stat line in 30 games with the Greyhounds.
With the exception of the mistakes, Dean spoke of how he thought the Hounds “played a great game. I thought we out-played them and out-chanced them. We were the better team, no doubt about it. Unfortunately, the mistakes bit us.”
The coach wasn’t pleased with the way in which penalties hampered the third period comeback attempt. Without naming the player, he called a slashing minor, taken by Jordan D’Intino at 11:49, “a terrible penalty, a very selfish penalty.”
Dean also didn’t like the delay of game minor taken by Ryan Thompson, who cleared the puck over the glass at 13:56.
“Those are two unacceptable penalties that can’t happen,” he added.
“We have to dial in on eliminating mistakes and executing the small things,” said Cloutier, who refused to pin the loss solely on the mistakes that led directly to Guelph goals. “There were a lot of mistakes. I made mistakes, too.”
But Cloutier agreed with Dean, saying he believes his team out-played the opponent.
Asked about the Hounds fading playoff hopes, Cloutier spoke of how he and his teammates “can’t control what anyone else does. We can only control what the Hounds do and so we’re getting ready for Oshawa.”
Notes:
Saturday’s game marks the 31st annual Battle of the Sections. During the evening, the Rotary Club will be passing the bucket through each section of GFL Memorial Gardens. Monies raised go into the community to help fund Rotary’s work with its special children’s projects. Prizes will be given to fans sitting in the winning section.
