Penalties force Hounds to pay the price
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
FULL PHOTO GALLERY | GAME HIGHLIGHTS
Two penalties, seconds apart in the final period, proved devastating for the Soo Greyhounds on Saturday.
Skating 5-on-3, Guelph’s Max Namestnikov scored a power-play goal at 1:17 to snap a 2-2 tie. That stood up as the winner as the Storm secured a 4-2 victory over the Hounds in front of 4,067 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
“In such a critical game, we obviously can’t take those two (penalties). Facing 5-on-3 in a massive game like that is very difficult,” said head coach John Dean, who watched Christopher Brown get whistled for tripping and, on the delayed penalty, saw Hunter Solomon get the gate for slashing.
The penalties came at the :58 mark.
“When you’re chasing and you get your stick involved, you’re at risk for those calls to be made,” added Dean, whose team is trying to outduel Flint, Sarnia, Guelph and Owen Sound for a Western Conference playoff spot. “That’s the reality.”
“Those penalties definitely hurt us. Obviously, we can’t give up a 5-on-3,” said centre Owen Allard, who notched a goal and an assist in defeat. “When they scored to go ahead, it was pretty deflating.”
Asked if the penalties angered him, Dean said no.
But he also stressed he didn’t like them one bit.
“It’s not for a lack of care by the players,” he added. “Those penalties are not egregious. They’re just indications we were chasing and that can’t happen.”
Trailing 3-2 later in the final frame, the Hounds enjoyed back-to-back power plays of their own.
Guelph’s Carter Stephens was sent off for high-sticking at 10:25 before Lev Katzin was whistled for tripping at 12:34.
But the home team failed to convert.
“The power play needed to step up and put one in for the boys,” said Allard, whose club fell to 16-23-1-0, eighth in the conference.
Guelph (13-22-4-1) is ninth, two points back. Owen Sound (12-23-2-3) lost 6-4 to London on Saturday and stands 10th, four points back of the Soo. All three teams have 28 games remaining.
Sarnia and Flint are tied for sixth place with 37 points each. The Soo has two games in hand on the Sting and one on the Firebirds.
Dean spoke about the need for the Soo to generate more offence.
“We’ve got to score more than two goals,” he added. “We over-passed the puck, we over-stickhandled. We didn’t take the opportunity to shoot it.”
Allard agreed, saying he and his teammates need to shoot more often and to get to the dirty areas around the opposition net more consistently.
The home side held a 26-23 edge in shots, but managed just four shots in the second period and nine in the third.
Guelph started a rookie netminder in Colin Ellsworth, a 2008 birth-year player who turned 17 just a month ago.
Dean agreed his team needed to put more pressure on the youngster.
Stevens opened the scoring for the visitors, getting inside the Hounds defence on a Guelph power play. Quinn Beauchesne fired from the point, Nolan Lalonde made a pad save and Stevens, on the backhand, was there to deposit the rebound.
The goal came at 2:53 of the opening frame.
Allard tied it at 17:25 on the power play. Justin Cloutier centered the puck from the left corner and Allard had two whacks at it from the slot. That was his eighth goal in 17 games.
Brady R. Smith put the Soo in front just 1:35 later. Allard used his speed down the left wing to create the opportunity . He centered the puck to Smith who scored on a backhand shot, low to the glove side.
At 5:06 of the second period, Hounds rookie Jordan Charron provided some payback directed at the Storm’s Parker Snelgrove.
The Guelph player had delivered a hit to Hounds rearguard Chase Reid behind the Soo net at 15:14 of the opening period. Reid was down on the ice for a short period of time and the hit arguably deserved an interference minor.
No penalty was assessed and so Charron squared off with Snelgrove – and landed multiple blows – easily winning the fight.
“I don’t go looking for fights,” Charron said. “But tonight, I felt like I had to stand up for my teammates. They’re family and I know they’d do it for me.”
Guelph tied the game before the second period ended. After the Hounds failed to clear, Ryan McGuire fired from the goal-line extended on the left wing. Sam Johnston redirected the shot, which slipped past Lalonde, entering the net just inside the post on the short side. That tied the game 2-2 at 15:07.
On his winning goal, Namestnikov, on the rush, fired wide from the slot. But he beat the Hounds to the rebound off the end boards and slipped it by Lalonde on the short side.
Katzin added an empty-netter to close the scoring. He finished with a goal and two assists.
Reid had a pair of assists in defeat. The impressive rookie rearguard has a 1-12-13 stat line in 12 OHL contests.
“This was a huge road trip for us,” said Storm head coach Cory Stillman, whose club stopped Flint 6-4 on Friday. “Our goal had been just to get a split. The Soo is a highly-skilled team, but we did a good job in the neutral zone. I’m proud of our guys.”
In posting his first career victory, Ellsworth “played extremely well,” the coach added.
Though disappointed with the result, Dean spoke of how “there’s a ton of season left.”
However, the Hounds badly need a victory and will look to turn things around on Thursday when they begin a three-game trip in Peterborough (7:05 p.m.).
The Greyhounds visit Kingston on Friday (7 p.m.) and Ottawa on Sunday (2 p.m.).
“I would do anything for a win right now,” said Cloutier, one of the team’s leaders. “I thought we lacked a little bit of fire tonight. We were up and down in that department all game. We need to consistently bring that jam.”
Notes:
The Soo played minus winger Noel Nordh (illness), Spencer Evans (upper-body injury) and Travis Hayes (upper body). Dean expects Nordh back on Thursday and spoke of how there’s a good chance Hayes and Evans will play at some point on the road trip.