Steelheads snap Soo’s six-game streak
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
Any team you take lightly can light you up.
Just ask the Soo Greyhounds.
Two days after a scintillating, come-from-behind, road win over arch-rival Saginaw, the Hounds turned in a sub-par performance on Friday.
Taking advantage of some sloppy play by the home side, the Mississauga Steelheads scored five straight goals, en route to a 6-3 victory over the Hounds in front of 4,400 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
“We completely mailed it in after the first eight minutes. We had blown assignments, our compete level was low, we lost every race,” said head coach John Dean, whose club saw its six-game win streak snapped, while falling to 32-13-2-1. “We took them lightly after the first eight minutes. That’s not our team.”
Dean admitted he was “frustrated” for his players, while discussing how they “lost a great opportunity they had created” by winning in Saginaw on Wednesday.
In a battle for top spot in the torrid West Division race, the Greyhounds rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win 5-3 – their fourth straight victory at the Dow Event Center this season.
However, 48-hours later, the positive vibes were squandered.
“We didn’t play our game at all,” said winger Marco Mignosa, whose club remains two points up on idle Saginaw (32-13-0-1), but the Spirit now has two games in hand. “We were flat after the first eight minutes.”
“We lacked a little bit of effort at times tonight,” added winger Justin Cloutier. “We have to work on our consistency.”
Dean spoke of how, over their last three home games, the Hounds have come out strong, only to fade.
Still, they managed wins over Kitchener, 4-2, and Sarnia, 3-2, last weekend.
However, that wasn’t the case against Mississauga.
“There seems to be a trend here,” said Dean, whose team controlled play early against the IceDogs. “But we took our feet off the gas.”
Cloutier talked of how the Hounds “started holding onto pucks too long and stopped going North.”
He also agreed he and his teammates have a lot of things to clean up before Wednesday’s 7:05 p.m. start in Sudbury.
“We need to get above pucks better and we need to reload better,” added Mignosa. “We gave up too many odd-man rushes.”
Minutes after his club improved to 24-19-4-0, Steelheads head coach/general manager James Richmond, saluted the play of netminder Ryerson Leenders.
The 17-year-old (2006 birth year) made a number of big-time saves, on a night when his team was outshot 40-30.
“Our goalies have been great all year,” said Richmond, who also spoke of how he “liked how we got the puck up ice in a hurry and got O-zone time.”
Asked if he thought the Hounds underestimated his young club, Richmond answered “Maybe.”
Trailing 2-1 after the opening period, the visitors took control in the middle stanza.
At the 9:42 mark, the Hounds failed to challenge Adam Zidlicky, who put a backhander from the slot past Landon Miller high to the blocker side.
Just 13 seconds later, Jakub Fibigr found Angus MacDonell all alone at the side of the Soo goal and it was quickly 3-2.
The back-to-back goals were key, Richmond noted, saying: “We got in on the forecheck, won pucks down low and we got inside them.”
MacDonell did it again late in the second period. Two Hounds defenders challenged Lucas Karmiris behind the Soo goal and that left MacDonell in front, with no one near him.
On the backhand, he shoveled home the feed from Karmiris to give Mississauga a 4-2 lead.
Midway through the third, Karmiris made a slick feed to Jack Van Volsen who converted the 2-on-1 break. He beat Charlie Schenkel to give his team a 5-2 cushion.
Schenkel replaced Miller in goal after 40 minutes.
The winners added an empty-net goal as Zidlicky completed a two-goal-one-assist night with his second tally at the 15:09 mark.
MacDonell was a standout with two goals and two assists while Van Volsen also scored twice.
Karmiris had four assists and Fibigr added a pair.
Gavin Hayes added a late power-play goal for the Hounds to finish with a goal and an assist. Bryce McConnell-Barker, who contributed a short-handed tally and two assists, and Jacob Frasca also scored in defeat.
Dean said he “felt terrible for Landon,” who was hung out to dry by sloppy play in front of him. “We tried to get a little spark by putting Schenkel in.”
Notes:
Prior to Friday’s game, Sault natives Tyler Kennedy and Paul Boyer and Sherry Bassin were inducted into the Sault Ste. Marie Hockey Hall of Fame. Kennedy played four seasons for the Hounds and won a Stanley Cup in 2009 with the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins.
Boyer has been the head equipment manager for the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings since the 1994-95 season. Over that period, the Wings have won four Stanley Cups.
As the Hounds general manager, Bassin led the club to three consecutive Memorial Cup appearances, winning the only Cup in franchise history in 1993 at the old Memorial Gardens.
He spent 36 years in the OHL as either a coach, GM or team owner.
