Miscues spoil ‘phenomenal’ performance
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
FULL PHOTO GALLERY | GAME HIGHLIGHTS
Owner of what is typically a very positive voice, the other side of John Dean’s personality was front-and-centre on Friday.
While acknowledging his team’s superior performance and work ethic – “We played a phenomenal game,” said the Soo Greyhounds head coach – Dean was highly critical of three miscues, which played a role in two Barrie goals.
While taking advantage of the mistakes, the Colts rode the brilliant netminding of Ben Hrebik to a 3-2 victory over the Hounds in front of 4,048 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
“We’re playing for our lives right now,” said centre Owen Allard, the overage summing up both his frustration over losing a winnable game – the Hounds controlled play and held a 45-19 edge in shots – and the club’s precarious playoff situation. “Every point is critical and we have to bear down.”
The loss dropped the Soo to 24-34-2-1, good for 61 points and a tie with Owen Sound (22-32-4-3) for the eighth-and-final Western Conference playoff spot. The Attack lost 4-1 in Erie on Friday.
Both clubs have seven regular season games remaining.
The Greyhounds are slated to play host to Oshawa on Saturday (7:07 p.m.), while the Attack will again face the Otters at Erie Insurance Arena.
Sarnia (21-27-5-7) strengthened its hold on seventh place with a 5-1 victory in Guelph (18-32-5-4). The Sting is three points up on the Soo and Owen Sound.
And Sarnia, a visitor in Flint on Saturday, also has a game in hand on both.
Guelph remains 10th in the conference, six points back of the Hounds and Attack, but with nine regular season games remaining. The Storm is idle on Saturday.
“In Game 61, we can’t put pucks over the glass with five minutes to go on a clearly-won face-off, we can’t miss clear assignments on the PK and we can’t turn over pucks for breakaways,” said Dean, who noted how short the remaining runway is multiple times, while addressing the media. “At some point we have to buck up and execute. We made three very, very poor mistakes. In Game 61, these aren’t minor details.”
Dean went on to say: “Those things haunt you.”
After fighting back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game 2-2, Hounds rearguard Hunter Solomon was sent off for delay of game at 13:53 of the third.
On the ensuing power play, just 40-seconds later, Emil Henning beat Noel Nordh to the net, took a feed from Cole Beaudoin and had a tap-in past Nolan Lalonde. That made it 3-2 and stood up as the winner.
The other mistake that gnawed at Dean was a misplay by defenceman Keegan Gillen on Barrie’s first goal, midway through the opening period.
After a dump-in, the puck came off the end boards and Gillen failed to control it. The puck hopped off his stick to Carter Lowe, who was all alone in front of the Soo goal. Lalonde, playing for the first time since missing 11 games with an upper-body injury, had little chance as Lowe scored high to the glove side.
“These are mistakes that can’t happen this late in the season,” said Allard, whose club allowed its lowest shots-against total this season. “But 100 per cent, we played well enough to win.”
The mistakes “are nothing we can’t clean up,” added defenceman Chase Reid, who scored both Soo goals. “We worked really hard and we deserved to win tonight. Overall, we had only four or five bad minutes that resulted in goals against.”
Barrie head coach and general manager Marty Williamson admitted his team was outplayed by a wide margin.
“Poor Deaner, I feel bad for him,” Williamson said. “They were the hungrier team and we didn’t deserve the two points. We didn’t want to battle. Give them an A-plus.”
The Colts boss agreed Hrebik won the game, noting how the netminder was “fantastic tonight. No question he won us that game.”
The Greyhounds power play continues to struggle – mightily. The Hounds were 0-for-4 with the man advantage and are just 2-for-39 over their last 12 games.
Trailing 2-1, the Hounds failed to convert on a couple of power plays in the first seven minutes of the third period.
“Our sets were really good,” said Allard, who spoke of how the Hounds have recently made some changes to their power play. “We were moving it around really well. But we know we have to be a lot better. We just have to put pucks in the net.”
While Allard agreed with Williamson concerning the importance of Hrebik, the Soo veteran did say he and his teammates needed to get more traffic in front of the Barrie goalie.
“We really talked about taking his eyes away, but that didn’t really happen tonight,” Allard added. “That could have been the difference for us.”
Kashawn Aitcheson gave the visitors a 2-0 lead with a power-play goal at 12:22 of the first. On an odd-man rush, Aitcheson beat Lalonde with a low shot from the slot.
The puck trickled through the overage netminder, resulting in a goal he’d surely like back.
Reid’s fifth tally of the season trimmed the Hounds deficit to 2-1 early in the second period. The rookie skated end-to-end before his centering attempt deflected in off of Hrebik.
Reid tied the game at 13:48 of the third when he snapped one from the top of the right circle, beating the Barrie netminder high to the blocker side.
Asked how difficult this loss was to accept, Reid answered quickly.
“Not an easy pill to swallow,” he said. “But we have to respond and come back on Saturday, ready to play well and battle against Oshawa.”
