OT ‘stings’ Hounds in Flint
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Todd Boone (Flint Firebirds)
It’s become an all-too-familiar – and certainly painful – script for the 2022-2023 Soo Greyhounds.
The Hounds let a 5-3 lead get away on Friday and wound up dropping a 6-5 overtime decision to the Flint Firebirds before 2,939 at Dort Financial Center.
At the 3:16 mark of overtime, Dmitry Kuzmin was on the finishing end of a 3-on-1, as the Hounds saw their record in OT and shootouts fall to 2-11.
“That’s a difficult one for sure. We’ve had every tough heartbreak you can have this season,” said head coach John Dean, whose club has lost five straight to Flint and will take an 11-14-7-4 mark into Sunday’s 2:07 p.m. clash with London at GFL Memorial Gardens. “It’s a blown opportunity. The bottom line is we need to collect points. That’s another point on the table that should have been ours.”
“This really stings. We had a two-goal lead. We had this game,” said winger Brenden Sirizzotti, whose team is tied with Guelph (14-18-4-1) for seventh place in the OHL’s Western Conference.
However, the Hounds have a game in hand. Guelph was a 7-2 winner over Erie on Friday.
Moments before Kuzmin’s winner, the Hounds had a glorious opportunity. Firebirds’ goalie Will Cranley made a pad save on a streaking Bryce McConnell-Barker. Kalvyn Watson, who finished with a goal and an assist on Friday, just missed depositing the rebound into the yawning cage.
“That guy can score,” Sirizzotti said of Watson, who has 16 goals to date, second on the team behind only McConnell-Barker’s 20. “He wants that one back and we want it back for him.”
After the Soo failed to convert, Flint took the puck the other way. Gavin Hayes hit Kuzmin, who was all alone on the left side of the ice before beating Samuel Ivanov.
The missed chance at the offensive end of the ice “100 per cent makes it more painful,” to see Kuzmin score the winner, Sirizzotti noted.
“Obviously, this isn’t the best feeling,” said centre Mark Duarte. “It’s becoming a habit for us and we have to figure out what we’re doing wrong.”
Duarte, who notched a pair of assists, also spoke of how the young Hounds “need to put together 60 minutes and not just show up at times.”
After a strange opening period which featured shaky netminding and sloppy play from both teams, the Soo carried a 5-3 lead into the middle frame.
Late in the second, Riley Piercey made a great feed to Braeden Kressler who was alone at the right side of the Soo goal. That made it 5-4.
But it wouldn’t be the last time the visitors heard from Kressler. With 3:17 left in regulation, Hounds rearguard Ryan Thompson was tagged with a checking-from-behind minor. Kressler tied the game with a power-play marker 48 seconds later.
The Flint veteran took a feed from Zacharie Giroux and sent a one-timer through Ivanov’s five-hole.
Dean agreed the penalty was “ill-advised,” before adding: “We didn’t need to go there. We had the numbers and we were on the right side of the puck. There was no upside to being more aggressive in that situation.”
On a night when both teams would collect 31 shots, the Hounds start was certainly forgettable. Flint’s Kaden Pitre turned Soo turnovers into back-to-back goals just eight seconds apart and it was 2-0 by the 2:02 mark.
But, sparked by the line of Duarte, Sirizzotti and Justin Cloutier, the Greyhounds fought back. They scored four straight, the first two by Sirizzotti, who has three goals and an assists over his last three games.
Ethan Montroy notched his second of the season at 11:31 of the opening period to give the visitors a 3-2 advantage. McConnell-Barker scored on the power play at 15:52, converting a slick feed from Jordan D’Intino. Giroux and Watson traded goals before the period ended.
Watson connected for a beauty, going between his own legs, before depositing the puck through the legs of Flint’s starting goalie Nathan Day.
Cranley replaced Day after the opening frame.
Giroux finished with a goal and two assists for the winners while Kuzmin contributed a goal and an assist and Piercey helped set up a pair of Flint markers.
McConnell-Barker had a goal and an assist in defeat while Cloutier finished with a pair of helpers.
“We deserved to win that one and we got bitten,” Sirizzotti concluded.
Notes:
Hounds centre Harrison Ballard has cleared waivers and has joined the Saint John Seadogs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Ballard was acquired from Kingston last August in exchange for a conditional 15th-round draft choice.
