Schenkel shines, Dean gives goalie new nickname
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
A great goaltending performance can overcome a lot of mistakes.
Charlie Schenkel provided just such an effort for the Soo Greyhounds on Friday.
The Ottawa native was brilliant – especially in the second period – and the Hayes brothers combined for three goals in their first OHL game together.
The result for the Hounds was a hard-fought 4-2 victory over the Guelph Storm in front of 3,897 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
“I want to call him Sir Charles,” joked head coach John Dean, who watched Schenkel turn aside all but two of 33 shots – including a great many in tight. “We don’t make it to the third period in a tie game unless Charlie Schenkel is playing the way he did.”
Meantime, you could almost hear the cheers from Westland, Mich., as hometown boys Travis and Gavin Hayes provided a big boost to the Hounds offence.
Travis scored the power-play winner, connecting on the short side to break a 2-2 tie at 10:40 of the third period.
In his Hounds debut, Gavin scored twice, including an empty-netter.
“Nice play by Gibby (Andrew Gibson) in the corner,” Travis Hayes said when asked to describe the winner. “He got it down to Miggy (Marco Mignosa). He had so much time and space and he found me in the slot.”
Travis Hayes was alone and wasted little time in sneaking a shot between the arm and pad of Guelph netminder Brayden Gillespie to give the Soo a 3-2 advantage.
“It felt so good,” Travis said. “After seeing Gavin score, it made me push a little harder to get one.”
After giving the home team a 2-1 lead in the second period, the elder brother added his second of the night, an empty-netter with just over a minute remaining in regulation.
Gavin, acquired earlier this week from Flint, was asked if he could have possibly hoped for a better start to his Greyhounds career?
“Yeah, I could have gotten one more goal. Just kidding,” said the 19-year-old, fresh from a gold-medal performance as a part of Team USA at the world junior championships.
Questioned about watching his brother notch the eventual game-winner, Gavin said: “It was awesome. Three goals for the Hayes boys was awesome. We just have to do it again (on Saturday).”
The Hounds, who improved to 26-11-2-1 with the victory, are slated to entertain North Bay (19-14-5-1) on Saturday in a 7:07 p.m. start.
Asked about playing with his older brother, Travis, an OHL rookie, used the words “super cool,” and “super fun.”
Of course, none of this would have mattered were it not for the play of Schenkel.
The 19-year-old netminder spoke of how he had “a lot of fun battling for the boys.”
Reluctant to discuss the quality of his performance, Schenkel finally admitted the middle frame “was close to as well as I’ve played for a period this season. I was just in the moment and loved stopping the puck.”
How about Guelph’s numerous chances from in tight?
“I love the point-blank shots,” Schenkel said. “The harder, the better.”
“Good goaltending wins hockey games and championships,” Gavin Hayes said.
Dean thought his team was “extremely flat” in the opening frame, but fortunately skated off in a 1-1 tie.
“In the second period, they absolutely dominated us. We lost every 50-50 battle you can possibly imagine. We made lots of mistakes, but the mistakes were the result of playing passive.”
The coach said he thought his players were looking at each other, waiting for someone else to get the job done.
“It was a bad second period. Our D-zone wasn’t very good,” Travis Hayes said. “They were beating us to pucks.”
But after Schenkel got the Hounds into the final frame tied 2-2, that changed.
“Guys stopped looking around and got it done themselves,” Dean added.
Storm head coach Chad Wiseman, whose club fell to 23-14-2-1, spoke of how he was pleased his club gave itself a chance to win on the road in the third period.
However, he also “thought we struggled to get pucks behind their D in the third. And we struggled transitioning the puck in the neutral zone in the third.”
Mignosa, who turned in a strong effort, had the other goal for the Hounds. He notched his 17th, shorthanded, to open the scoring midway through the first.
That was the Soo’s 11th short-handed tally this season.
Four minutes later, after Schenkel made the initial save, Vilmer Alriksson banged in a rebound in front to tie the score.
On a night when the Soo was outshot 33-32, Gavin Hayes made it 2-1, tapping in a nifty feed by Jordan D’Intino at 13:53 of the second.
Guelph tied it again late in the period with the teams skating 4-on-4. Brody Crane out-raced Arttu Karki, cut in alone on Schenkel and scored on the glove side.
That set the stage for the decisive third period.
With the victory, the Soo increased its lead to four points over second-place Saginaw (25-12-0-1) in the West Division race.
The Spirit, with two games in hand on the Hounds, dropped a 6-1 decision to London.
Notes:
Dean said captain Bryce McConnell-Barker (concussion), who’s been absent since Dec. 10, is not expected to play on Saturday. The coach said the team is being extra cautious.
