RECAP; Hounds blow leads, lose to Flint
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
As he stared straight ahead, John Dean was succinct on Friday.
“You can’t play a 30-minute game,” the Soo Greyhounds head coach said, minutes after his team had coughed up 3-0 and 4-3 leads, eventually losing 5-4 in overtime to the Flint Firebirds at GFL Memorial Gardens. “We played a really good first half of the game, but probably got a little too cute after that. And you can never give up a 3-0 lead, that’s for sure.”
With the Firebirds shorthanded in the OT period, Flint’s Zack Terry beat a couple of Hounds to the puck along the boards in the Soo zone. Terry then found Zach Giroux alone in the slot. The Flint centre snapped a quick shot to beat Hounds goalie Tucker Tynan low to the stick side.
The goal, at 3:48, provided the Firebirds with their fourth straight victory, boosting their record to 21-13-0-2. They’re tied with Windsor (20-11-2-2) for second place in the OHL’s West Division, four points back of the first-place Hounds (22-12-3-1). The Spits have three games in hand on the Soo while Flint has two.
Asked if his players seemed lackadaisical on the winning goal, Dean blamed fatigue.
“Guys were tired. I overplayed my big guys,” said Dean, whose club is slated to face Barrie here at 7:07 p.m. Saturday. “I was doubling down, trying to get a win.”
“We definitely should have won that game. We shot ourselves in the foot,” said Hounds centre Tanner Dickinson, whose quick release and razor-sharp shot resulted in a pair of goals. “We need to manage the puck better.”
While the Hounds were obviously disappointed, there were smiles all around at the other end of the hallway.
“It’s almost like I have to digest this and sit back – it happened so quickly,” said Flint head coach Ted Dent, whose club was outshot 40-33 but received strong netminding from overage Luke Cavallin. “I’m really proud of the guys. They never gave up.”
Hounds’ winger Kalvyn Watson spoke of how hard the Firebirds competed.
“But obviously the game slipped away from us,” he added. “We can’t get into penalty trouble, we have to manage the puck better and play a full 60 minutes.”
Trailing 3-0, the visitors got rolling with a power-play goal at 13:16 of the second period. With Ty Anselmini off for cross-checking, Sahil Panwar made a slick stretch pass to Riley Piercey, who skated in and beat Tynan with a right-to-left move.
That snapped a streak of 23 consecutive kills for Hounds penalty-killers.
Less than five minutes later, the Soo was unable to clear and Tyler Deline made them pay. The defenceman trimmed his club’s deficit to 3-2.
Asked if the power-play goal started his team’s decline, Dean spoke of the “tough circumstances” on the play. A Greyhounds’ player appeared to be interfered with moments before Panwar made his pass.
While the coach admitted there was a blown assignment by his team on the play, he would not go into detail as to whether he believed a call was missed.
“But we unraveled a bit after that,” Dean added.
Just 1:06 into the third, Brennan Othmann used his speed to notch his 28th of the season, tying the score 3-3.
At that point, “the game got scrambly,” said Hounds centre Bryce McConnell-Barker. “We were trading chances and we never like to play like that.”
After Kirill Kudryavtsev kept the puck in at the point, Dickinson scored his second goal by beating Cavallin high to the glove side at 6:38.
But 10 minutes later, on the power play, Amadeus Lombardi found himself alone at the side of the Soo net before banging in the Firebirds’ fourth goal.
Giroux “made a great shot,” on the shorthanded, OT winner, said Dent. “Hats off to G for burying that.”
Dean admitted afterward he certainly wasn’t happy.
“I’m upset for sure,” said the coach, who spoke of how the Firebirds are “an exceptional team off transition and we gave them way too many chances.”
Cole MacKay, with a goal and an assist, and Rob Calisti, with his league-leading 15th among defencemen, also contributed offensively. Watson finished with a pair of assists.
As for Saturday’s clash, the Colts come in with a 20-9-3-0 record, good for 43 points in just 32 games.
“Barrie is a good team,” said McConnell-Barker. “We need to forget this quickly and move on.”
“Our team does a really good job of getting through adversity,” added Dickinson. “So I expect nothing less than for the guys to brush this off and be ready to get back at it (on Saturday).”
Notes:
MacKay, an overage winger, was taken to hospital after the game after blocking a shot late in the third period.
It appeared the Sault native was hit in either the abdomen or lower back. MacKay left the ice in obvious pain and didn’t return.
Dean used the word “precautionary” when asked about the veteran not returning to the game.
Later, at about 10 p.m., the coach said he had not received an update on MacKay’s condition.
