RECAP; Sarnia’s power play Stings Soo
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media)
They may have exploded out of the gate on Friday, but the Soo Greyhounds imploded when it mattered most.
On a night when a lack of discipline played a role in the Sarnia Sting notching four power-play goals, Marko Sikic scored in overtime as the Sting beat the Hounds 6-5 before 3,235 at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
Zach Filak netted his second power-play goal of the game, redirecting a shot past Tucker Tynan at 11:25 of the third period to wipe out a 5-4 Soo lead.
That set the stage for Sikic, with the teams skating 3-on-3, to deposit the rebound of an Ethan Ritchie scoring attempt at 1:06 of the extra frame.
“Tough one tonight. We’re frustrated for sure,” said Greyhounds winger Kalvyn Watson, who was his team’s best player. “It’s unfortunate we couldn’t get the two points, especially with the way we started.”
“It unfortunately seems to be a trend for us,” added head coach John Dean, who spoke of how well his players typically begin games. “But then we get away from the details and the discipline and the compete that created the success for us, and we think things are going to be easy.”
The Soo scored goals 56-seconds apart early, opening a 2-0 lead by the time the game was 4:15 old.
The Hounds also recorded the first 13 shots on goal, before Sarnia registered its first shot of the night at 12:15 of the opening period.
“We started off strong, but kind of died off as the game went on,” said winger Marco Mignosa.
“It’s really disappointing to see the guys not stick to what was working,” added Dean, whose team fell to 28-16-6-1 heading into an important Saturday game in Windsor (7:07 p.m.). “We slowly dissipated, especially in that second period. It looked as if we were cheating a little bit in the second.”
With their overtime setback, the Greyhounds lost ground to first-place Flint (32-15-1-3) in the OHL’s West Division race. The Firebirds stopped Erie 3-2 on Friday to go five points up on the Soo.
Windsor (27-14-2-3) dropped a 5-4 overtime decision to London and remains third in the division, four points back of the Hounds, but with five games in hand.
In the race for first place in the Western Conference, London (31-13-2-0) remains four points behind Flint, but with five games in hand.
Over their previous 11 games, the Hounds had thwarted their opponents 38 times in 42 power-play opportunities. But Sarnia, owners of one of the worst power plays in the league, managed to convert on all four of its man-advantage opportunities.
“You’re going to have nights like that,” said Dean, who spoke of the redirections and unfortunate bounces which hurt his club.
However, a lack of Greyhounds’ discipline was obvious.
“We took a bunch of stick penalties,” lamented Dean, whose club blew 2-0, 3-1, 4-3 and 5-4 leads. “When you’re taking stick penalties, it means you’re not moving your feet. It means you’re lazy. It means you’re more worried about yourself if you’re retaliating. There’s just no reason for it – especially when you’re protecting one-goal leads.”
The coach went on to rail about how needless penalties “show you don’t understand the importance or the magnitude of the game.”
Trailing 3-2, and with Tyler Savard off for slashing, Filak notched his first power-play goal midway through the second period. On a fluky play, his shot went up high, beating Tynan to the glove-hand side.
Jordan D’Intino scored 4:39 into the third, banging home a rebound to put the visitors back in front, 4-3.
However, Savard was serving a high-sticking minor when Ty Voit tied the game on the power play less than two minutes later.
Watson notched his second goal of the game at 9:50, redirecting a Kirill Kudryavtsev shot past Anson Thornton for a power-play marker, and a 5-4 Soo lead. For the night, Watson contributed two goals and an assist while Mignosa had a goal and an assist. Cole MacKay had the other Soo goal while Rory Kerins finished with a pair of assists.
Ritchie had two goals, including one with the man advantage, and two assists for the winners, who were outshot 38-30. Sikic added three assists to go along with his overtime winner. Theo Hill also had three assists for the Sting, winners of two straight over the Hounds, while improving to 21-22-3-1.
As the Greyhounds bus headed to Windsor, Mignosa spoke of how “we need to play a 60-minute game at both ends of the ice.”
Dean said he would talk to his players about the need to stay structured against the Spitfires, who’ve beaten the Soo four times in five tries this season – including once in overtime and once in a shootout.
“Honestly, we need to try to start the same way,” added Watson. “Our start was great (on Friday). I just think we need to be more consistent throughout the game.”
