RECAP; Despite Tynan’s heroics, Hounds lose in OT
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Tim Cornett
Especially by allowing his teammates to survive a horrible first period on Thursday, netminder Tucker Tynan did all he could for the Soo Greyhounds.
But in the end, it wasn’t quite enough.
Louka Henault scored 24 seconds into overtime as the Windsor Spitfires edged the Hounds 4-3 before 3,102 at the WFCU Centre.
The victory moved the Spitfires (13-8-2-2) into a tie with the Greyhounds (14-9-2-0) for first place in the Ontario Hockey League’s West Division. The Soo is slated to visit Kitchener on Friday (7:30 p.m.) in the team’s final clash before the Christmas break.
After calling the first period “abysmal,” Hounds head coach John Dean explained how “there’s no game without Tucker. He was exceptional. For whatever reason, we didn’t show up, especially in the first period. That’s the worst period I’ve seen our team play, maybe all year.”
Were it not for the 19-year-old (2002 birth year), acquired from Niagara for third-and-eighth-round draft choices 10 days ago, “the scoreboard would have been a lot uglier,” the coach added.
“He was unbelievable,” defenceman Rob Calisti said of the newest Greyhound, who shone on a night when his team was outshot 46-32 overall and 19-5 in a completely forgettable opening period.
Tynan turned aside a number of shots from point-blank range and the fact his team went to the first intermission trailing just 2-0 was fortuitous.
“It’s pretty clear to see that he’s an exceptional goalie in this league,” added Calisti, who notched a power-play goal and an assist, extended his goal-scoring streak to five games. The Spitfires “came out pretty hard and we couldn’t match it. We came out flat and they jumped all over us.”
“We didn’t show up, we didn’t compete, we bobbled pucks, we looked like we didn’t want pucks on our sticks and we made bad choices,” said an animated Dean, who saw the Spits improve to 5-0-2-0 over their last seven games. “That’s a hungry team over there and maybe we weren’t ready for them.”
However, despite their early slumbers the visitors fought their way back. Following Marco Mignosa’s man-advantage marker at 5:54 of the third period, the Soo had turned a pair of power-play goals and more strong play from Tynan into a 3-3 tie.
But in overtime, centre Rory Kerins made an uncharacteristic mistake, turning the puck over in the Windsor zone. That gave the Spits a 2-on-1 and Henault skated down the left wing and fired a shot which beat Tynan high to the glove side.
While lamenting the winning goal, Tynan spoke of how “that’s how I need to play every night. It’s a very offensive league and (opponents) are going to get lots of chances. I did my best to keep us in. That’s what I expect of myself and people expect from me.”
Tye Kartye, with his league-leading 22nd goal, rounded out the Soo scoring. Jacob Holmes and Jordan D’Intino contributed two assists each.
Matthew Maggio turned a power-play opportunity into a 1-0 lead for the home side at 1:41 of the opening frame. Less than nine minutes later, Daniel D’Amico took a feed from Henault and was all alone at the right side of the goal to make it 2-0.
After Calisti beat Spits netminder Kyle Downey to make it 2-1 at 8:33 of the middle stanza, Wyatt Johnston wasted little time restoring his team’s two-goal advantage. At the 9:34 mark, with the teams skating 4-on-4, Johnston ripped one past Tynan low to the stick side to make it 3-1. Both Johnston and Henault finished the game with a goal and two assists.
Asked if gaining a point represented a moral victory for his club, Dean said no.
“Points count in the standings and we’ll look at this come playoff time and be happy we have that point,” he added. “But we’re a process-oriented team, we know when we’ve played a good game and tonight we didn’t. It’s a luxury that we got a point.”
“You can’t have an off night,” said Calisti. “Teams in this league are good. We’re happy to get a point, but overall, we’re pretty disappointed.”
