Oke blanks Hounds in series opener
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Natalie Shaver
(full photo gallery available HERE)
Scoring chances are like paychecks. If you don’t cash them in, they’re worthless.
Unable to solve Saginaw netminder Andrew Oke on Thursday, the Soo Greyhounds dropped a 4-0 decision to the Spirit in front of 3,506 at the Dow Event Center.
And while Oke sparkled in the opener of the best-of-seven, Western Conference semifinal series, Hounds netminder Charlie Schenkel had a pair of goals trickle past him.
“We have to have a killer instinct,” said Hounds head coach John Dean, whose club will look to tie the series in Game 2 on Saturday (7:05 p.m.) in Saginaw. “Anyone who watched saw the amount of opportunities we had. Some of our second opportunities were missed because we weren’t in there, scrapping in the blue paint. At the end of the day, we have to convert on a few of those.”
“We have to score goals to win games,” offered veteran centre Owen Allard, whose club held a 39-35 edge in shots.
Rookie centre Brady Martin, whose line with wingers Travis Hayes and Justin DeZoete impressed all night, agreed.
“We have to convert. We got a lot of shots,” said Martin, whose team became the first visitor to lose a head-to-head game in the Soo-Saginaw rivalry this season.
The clubs split eight regular season games, with the road squad winning all eight.
“We just need to get guys in front of the net and put rebounds in and find ways to score,” Martin added.
Oke made a number of big saves for his club, frustrating the Greyhounds while drawing praise from Saginaw bench boss Chris Lazary.
“That’s the biggest game he’s played in in his career,” Lazary said following the contest on the Spirit TV broadcast. “He was outstanding. We gave up more chances than I would have liked, but when we did, he made the saves.”
“Oke was good,” said Dean, whose club entered the game with a 25-8-1-2 road record, regular season and playoffs combined. “You could argue he was the difference in the game.”
Asked to assess Schenkel’s performance, Dean explained how he didn’t think the Hounds netminder was to blame for the setback.
“He was fine,” Dean began. “He probably wants a couple of those squeakers back. I don’t think it was his best game, but I don’t think he was the difference in a bad way.”
After a scoreless first period in which both goalies were sharp, the Spirit connected for a pair of goals in the middle frame.
Joey Willis kept the play alive along the right-wing boards in the Hounds zone. Willis fed Hunter Haight, whose shot from the right circle leaked in under Schenkel’s arm on the stick side. That made it 1-0 at the 4:40 mark.
About 10 minutes later, the Hounds failed to connect on a 2-on-1 and Saginaw quickly transitioned the other way. With their own 2-on-1, Michael Misa fed Sault native Calem Mangone, who scored high to the blocker side.
The backbreaker for the Hounds came early in the third. Just 55-seconds in, Jorian Donovan chipped the puck ahead to Alex Christopoulos, who drove the net.
Christopoulos let fly and the puck squeaked in under Schenkel’s arm on the blocker side.
“It was big,” Allard said of the 3-0 goal. “They get one early in the period and it kind of takes some life out of you.”
Matyas Sapovaliv capped the scoring with an empty-net marker with 4:35 left in regulation.
Saying he “obviously wasn’t happy with the score,” Dean talked about how some aspects of his team’s game pleased him.
“I loved the way we generated opportunities, loved our physicality and really enjoyed our forecheck,” the coach added. “We have some obvious things to clean up, but there were a lot of things we did exceptionally well.”
The Hounds penalty-killing was solid, after drawing four minors in a scoreless opening period.
The penalty calls were “disappointing,” Dean said. “We’re one of the least-penalized teams in the league. But all season we’ve been watching Saginaw getting the benefit of a lot of interesting calls and favourable calls.”
The coach went on to say his team has come to expect that to happen, and is going to have to battle through it.
“A lot of their older guys tend to target our younger guys. And there’s no protection for our younger guys at all.”
Allard talked of how the Spirit players “saluted us off the ice at the end of the game and we didn’t like it. They just waved us off. They poked the bear.”
For his part, Martin said he can’t wait for Saturday night.
“Our confidence hasn’t been affected at all,” he added. “This is going to be a long, hard-fought series.”
Notes:
Hounds winger Jack Beck missed his fourth straight game with an upper-body injury. The overage winger, who led his team in regular season scoring, is listed as day-to-day.
Games 3-4 in the Soo-Saginaw series are set for Monday and Wednesday (both at 7:07 p.m.) at GFL Memorial Gardens.
Meantime, London defeated Kitchener 5-3 on Thursday in the opener of the other Western Conference semifinal. Game 2 is set for Saturday in London.
