RECAP; Hounds hang nine spot on Spirit
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
It was the kind of offensive eruption the Soo Greyhounds welcomed.
And surely needed.
The Hounds scored three times in a span of 4:04 early in the second period – part of a five-goal outburst in the middle frame – en route to an 9-3 thrashing of the Saginaw Spirit on Friday before 3,307 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak and, the Hounds hope, alleviates some pressure while helping foster momentum for the final six games of the OHL regular season.
“Absolutely, this is a chance for us to exhale,” Hounds head coach John Dean said, while explaining how the win relieves some stress for his club. “Anytime you can put up nine goals it’s an instant injection of confidence into the entire group.”
“We needed a no-doubter win for sure. Obviously, this gives us confidence and gets some offensive flow back,” added centre Rory Kerins, whose club tied its season high of nine goals, a mark first set in Guelph as part of a 9-4 victory on Nov. 5, 2021. “We needed to play a complete game and have a bunch of guys chipping in. It definitely takes some pressure off of us.”
Defenceman Rob Calisti, who notched a pair of goals, including a short-handed marker, and an assist, talked of how he and his teammates buried their chances.
“Obviously, we’ve been fighting it a little bit and struggling lately,” added Calisti, who leads all OHL rearguards with 21 goals. “It’s good to show we can still put up numbers and score. And this definitely puts us in a good mind set moving forward.”
With the victory, the Soo improved to 34-21-6-1 heading into Sunday’s 2:07 p.m. home start against Sarnia.
After that, the Hounds face Sudbury three times (twice at home) and Flint twice (both on the road) to close out the regular season.
Meantime, while they failed to gain any ground on the two teams ahead of them in the West Division standings on Friday, the Hounds did gain a point on Western Conference rival Owen Sound.
The Attack, fifth in the conference, dropped a 6-5 overtime decision in Guelph on Friday. With a 31-24-5-3 mark, Owen Sound is now five points back of the fourth-place Greyhounds in the race for home ice in the first round of the conference playoffs. The Soo also has a game in hand.
In the West Division, Windsor (40-16-3-3) won its ninth in a row, stopping Kitchener 5-3 to remain 11 points ahead of the third-place Hounds and five up on second-place Flint (38-19-1-4), a 3-1 winner over London on Friday.
As is the case with the Soo, both the Spitfires and Firebirds have six games remaining.
The teams were tied 1-1 until Kerins took advantage of a turnover and skated in alone on Saginaw netminder Brett Fullerton. Kerins ripped home his 40th high to the glove side and the Soo went up 2-1 at 19:34 of the opening period.
The second period onslaught began at 4:08 when Tye Kartye’s shot took a strange bounce and caromed off the glass to Bryce McConnell-Barker. The London, Ont., native made no mistake tucking in the rebound for his 21st goal.
Jack Thompson, on the power play, made it 4-1 at 7:44, beating Fullerton under the arm on the stick side.
Twenty-eight seconds after that, Connor Toms notched his second of the season, depositing a rebound to increase the Soo’s lead to 5-1.
Saginaw scored twice on Hounds goalie Samuel Ivanov in a span of 27 seconds to trim the home side’s advantage to 5-3.
But Calisti, first with the team’s playing even strength, and then with a short-handed marker off a feed from Kerins, sent the home side into the second intermission with a 7-3 advantage.
Dean praised both Calisti, who had 11 shots on goal, and Kerins, who finished with a goal and three assists, noting in particular how Calisti “had a great game.”
The coach also liked what he saw from veteran Cole MacKay, who contributed a goal and two assists, and Thompson, who scored once and assisted on three others.
On a night when the Soo held a 41-23 edge in shots – including 20-2 in the third period, Kirill Kudryavtsev contributed a power-play goal and an assist and Tyler Savard rounded out the scoring.
Starting netminder Tucker Tynan left the game at 15:57 of the opening period with what appeared to be an injury to his right arm or shoulder. Dean said Tynan was later cleared to resume action, but Ivanov played the rest of the game.
An obviously frustrated Chris Lazary was short with media after the contest.
“We got embarrassed 9-3,” the Saginaw coach said. “What do you want me to say?”
Asked to assess the biggest problems for his team on Friday, Lazary spoke of how “we need to figure it out.”
Nick Wong, Pacey Schlueting and Pavel Mintyukov handled the scoring for Saginaw (21-40-1-0), winners of three straight coming into the contest.
Notes:
Hounds captain Ryan O’Rourke is expected to return to the lineup on Sunday after sitting out a two-game suspension for slew-footing.
The start of Friday’s game was delayed for nearly an hour due to a power outage in the city’s downtown area.
