Taylor calls it Soo’s ‘worst effort’
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo courtesy of Tom Martineau (Baytoday.ca)
There was absolutely no beating around the bush for Brendan Taylor on Thursday.
The Soo Greyhounds assistant coach, running the club in the absence of John Dean, made his feelings crystal clear.
“That was our worst effort, top-to-bottom, of the season,” said Taylor, minutes after a disappointing 5-3 loss to the North Bay Battalion in front of 2,541 at North Bay Memorial Gardens. “We probably put together 10 minutes of half-decent hockey. But other than that, it was definitely not up to our standard. It was our worst game of the season, by far.”
The Hounds actually led 3-2 at one point in the final period, before surrendering three unanswered goals, including an empty-netter.
“It was a team I didn’t recognize, especially when we had possession of the puck,” added Taylor, whose club came in riding a four-game winning streak.
The loss, in the first of a three-game trip, dropped the Hounds to 11-6-0-0, heading into Saturday’s 7 p.m. start in St. Catharines against the Niagara IceDogs.
The trip concludes with Sunday’s 2 p.m. clash in Kitchener.
Dean is coaching at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge on Prince Edward Island.
Along with winning too few puck battles, Taylor spoke of how “effort, attitude and execution,” were all areas of concern – especially in the opening two periods. “We got away from what’s been making us successful. We got away from our values that we talk about all the time.”
“Our first two periods were terrible,” added veteran defenceman Andrew Gibson, a Detroit Red Wings prospect. “We had a terrible start. We battled back in the third and put up a fight. But the bounces weren’t going our way.”
The Hounds were also stymied by Battalion netminder Mike McIvor, a key factor while posting his first career victory on a night when the home side held a 38-30 edge in shots.
Asked what happened to a club that has arguably played as well as any in the league this season, winger Jack Beck was stumped.
“I’m kind of at a loss for words,” the overage began. “I don’t know how to explain it. We didn’t show up and they were ready to go.”
Citing the way the Soo has been rolling of late, Taylor offered one possibility.
“I’m not sure if we’re believing our own hype a little bit,” he said. “We hung our goalie out to dry and for 40 minutes, I didn’t like anything about our game.”
Trailing 3-2 in the third, the Battalion began what would prove to be a successful comeback.
With the visitors unable to clear, North Bay tied the score at 11:24. After Soo netminder Charlie Schenkel made the initial save, Jacob Therrien tracked down the rebound.
He eventually grabbed a bouncing puck at the left post and pushed it home to even the score 3-3.
Less than five minutes later, Brice Cooke came out of the penalty box, skated down the right side, sped around the Hounds defence and made a right-to-left move. He stuffed the puck past Schenkel at the far post to give the Battalion a 4-3 lead.
In the final minute, Owen Van Steensel scored an empty-netter to cap the scoring and drop the Soo’s road record to 6-3.
While improving to 8-5-3-1, North Bay opened the scoring early on a shot Schenkel would surely like to have back. Ty Nelson came down the right side and appeared to surprise Schenkel, making it 1-0 at the 1:17 mark.
Two minutes later, Bryce McConnell-Barker’s pass from below the goal-line set up Beck’s sixth of the season from the left face-off dot.
Terrien made it 2-1 for the Battalion midway through the second period. Van Steensel’s shot deflected off of Therrien’s skate and, in a bad break, past Schenkel on the stick side.
The Soo tied it at 2:25 of the final period when the Battalion misplayed a puck off the end boards. It got past two North Bay defenders to Brenden Sirizzotti, who notched his sixth of the season.
Less than seven minutes later, the Hounds took their first lead when Owen Allard collected Goal No. 5 this season. The veteran centre tapped home a bouncing puck, sending it high to the glove side on McIvor to make it 3-2 Greyhounds.
“When you’re one of the top teams, everyone wants to beat you,” said Beck. “They took it to us. We didn’t deserve that one.”
