Saginaw’s offence gives Hounds ‘headaches’
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Natalie Shaver (OHLImages)
FULL PHOTO GALLERY (to be posted later) | VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
It would require serious forensic work to locate the positives in the Soo Greyhounds defensive-zone performance on Saturday.
The Hounds struggled mightily in that department, drawing criticism from head coach John Dean following a 5-0 loss to the Saginaw Spirit in front of 4,579 at the Dow Event Center.
“We had a lot of trouble with Saginaw’s movement in their offensive zone. That gave us a lot of headaches,” said Dean, whose club was fresh from a 4-0 home-ice win over Peterborough 24 hours earlier. “Obviously, they have very good offensive-zone play and we really looked off script in our own end.”
When it comes to offence, only Windsor and London have produced more than Saginaw’s 161 goals this season.
Meantime, the Soo coach disagreed when asked if he thought his team looked flat.
“We were swimming in our own zone and when you’re swimming, you’re not going to exit clean, you’re not going to enter clean and you’re not going to generate a lot of offence,” Dean said. “It looks like we’re flat because we’re not getting a lot of opportunities to showcase our speed in transition. But I thought our guys battled. It wasn’t for lack of care or compete.”
“Our defensive-zone play needed to be cleaned up. We maybe needed a little more intensity in the D-zone,” added winger Justin Cloutier, whose team fell to 16-21-0-0 heading into Wednesday’s (7:05 p.m.) road game in Sudbury. “We weren’t attentive to their defencemen jumping in. We got caught puck-watching.”
Michael Misa, who finished with a pair of goals for the winners, opened the scoring just 4:13 into the opening period. The Spirit enjoyed lengthy offensive-zone time before Misa and Kristian Epperson worked a give-and-go. On the left wing, Epperson found Misa all alone in the slot and Charlie Schenkel had no chance as the home side led 1-0.
Schenkel kept the Soo close, robbing P.J. Forgione all alone in the slot with 5:12 left in the first period. Schenkel also made a huge pad save on Misa with 2:30 remaining.
But Epperson, who would finish with a goal and three assists, gave Saginaw a two-goal lead at 5:08 of the second. On a 2-on-2, Epperson made a slick move around Caeden Carlisle on the right wing, creating a 2-on-1. He skated in and beat Schenkel through the five-hole.
Just 41-seconds later, the Spirit cashed in a power-play chance. Zayne Parekh slid the puck to Misa in the left circle. He beat Schenkel high to the glove side for his 32nd goal of the season and a 3-0 Saginaw advantage.
The Spirit closed the scoring as Sault native Calem Mangone notched an empty-net tally at 15:26 before Carson Harmer tallied a power-play marker at 18:03. Mangone finished with a goal and an assist while Parekh contributed two assists.
On a night when the home side held a 43-24 edge in shots, Andrew Oke posted his first shutout of the season.
Often left to his own devices, Schenkel made a number of saves in close.
“Charlie was great. He kicked for us,” Dean said. “He gave us an opportunity.”
Saturday marked the fifth time the Greyhounds have been shut out this season.
Saginaw “looked like a hungrier team in front of our net than we did in front of their net, that’s for sure,” Dean said. “I thought we gave up some opportunities to get pucks to the paint early. And when we did, we didn’t have a lot of traffic there or a lot of fight.”
That said, the biggest problem was at the other end of the ice.
“We talk about one man, one job,” Dean began. “But in the defensive zone, we looked like a bunch of guys trying to make up for other guys mistakes and we ended up running around.”
Saginaw, which had lost the previous three head-to-head meetings with the Hounds, improved to 19-17-1-0.
Notes:
The Hounds played without world juniors participants Andrew Gibson and Noel Nordh and injured players Chris Brown, Spencer Evans and Brady Martin.
Following the Sudbury clash, the Soo is home to Kingston on Friday and Guelph on Saturday. Both are 7:07 p.m. starts.
