Two points are welcomed, but Hounds not sharp
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photos by Bob Davies
FULL PHOTO GALLERY | GAME HIGHLIGHTS | GAME CENTRE
Were the Soo Greyhounds underwhelming on Friday, in a 6-3 victory over the Sarnia Sting?
When that question was posed to the club’s two overage players, both answered in the affirmative.
“I’d agree,” said winger Marco Mignosa, who carried the Hounds with a three-goal, one-assist effort – including a record-breaking tally – in front of 3,653 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
“Honestly, I’d have to agree with you,” added fellow winger Justin Cloutier, whose club gained two points on both Windsor and London in the Western Conference standings, “I’m obviously super happy with the win. But we need to be better. The lulls we’re having, against high-level teams, it’ll be hard to win.”
Following Sarnia’s 6-5 shootout victory over the Soo on Monday, a disappointed Mignosa spoke of he and his teammates “being ready to pound these guys on Friday.”
Was the Vaughan, Ont., native satisfied following Friday’s performance?
“No. We didn’t follow through,” said Mignosa, who notched the 14th short-handed tally of his OHL career.
That’s now tops in franchise history, one more than both Steve Gatzos and Boris Katchouk.
“We didn’t dominate the game. Sarnia had a lot of life throughout the 60 minutes,” added Mignosa, who boosted his stats line to 28-49-77, tied with Flint’s Nathan Aspinall (28-49-77) for the OHL scoring lead. “We expected to be a lot better tonight, and we’re going to have to be a lot better.”
Head coach John Dean, whose club improved to 34-16-1-5 heading into Saturday’s 7:07 p.m. start against Guelph, was far less critical than his veteran players.
“I’ll take an underwhelming two points,” said Dean, whose fourth-place team moved five points ahead of fifth-place London (32-19-4-1), a 5-1 loser to Barrie on Friday. “We played well. Six-three, two points, good game.”
Questioned a second time, the coach repeated his comments.
The Soo also moved to within five points of third-place Windsor (36-13-5-2), a 3-0 loser to conference-leading Kitchener (38-12-4-2).
The top five teams in the Western Conference all have 12 games remaining.
Dean said he loved his team’s start and first period, one that saw the Hounds open a 4-1 lead, taking advantage of Sarnia netminder Kale Osipenko.
“In the second and third, I thought our defence was too active and got exposed quite a bit,” the coach added. “But other than that, it was a good game.”
Osipenko was yanked after 20 minutes in favor of first-stringer Patrick Quinlan.
Sarnia quickly trimmed its deficit to 4-3, exposing Hounds defenders on goals by Carson Hall, at 2:07, and Chase Gaughan, who went high glove side on Carter George from in tight, four minutes later.
“We made too many mistakes and we were a little lackadaisical at times,” offered Cloutier, who thought the Hounds “took our foot off the gas” after going in front early.
Cloutier also said he thought the first period lead wound up doing his club “a disservice. We have to learn how to handle that.”
With their lead trimmed to 4-3 in the middle frame, the Soo got a key goal at the 12:34 mark.
Seconds after George robbed Alessandro Di Iorio, Mignosa tried to score on a wrap-around.
His attempt was turned aside by Quinlan. Quinn McKenzie sent the rebound toward the net before Noah Laus finally knocked it in on his second attempt. That’s goal No. 12 for the Hounds rookie and the home side was up 5-3.
In the third, Mignosa, following an unselfish pass by Travis Hayes, capped the scoring with an empty-net marker.
Hayes, who turned in a strong effort, finished with a pair of assists.
Despite being whistled for four minor penalties in the opening period, the Soo successfully defended a 5-on-3 and wound up taking control of the game.
Christopher Brown redirected a Spencer Evans shot for his 19th goal just 1:06 in.
After Sarnia’s Matt Manza tied the game 17 seconds later, Mignosa scored his memorable short-handed goal at the 4:18 mark.
Brady Smith forced a turnover, fed Mignosa and the overage went low glove-hand side on Osipenko to put his team ahead 2-1.
“It means a lot. It’s super cool and I’m super proud,” Mignosa said of the record goal. “A lot of credit goes to assistant coach Brendan Taylor for designing an offensive PK where we can score goals.”
Cloutier called his buddy “a great hockey player and a great person.”
Four minutes later, Callum Croskery’s point shot found its way past Osipenko and it was 3-1.
Late in the period, while working on the powerplay, Mignosa notched his 27th, firing short side on the Sting netminder from the left dot. That made it 4-1.
On a night when Sarnia held a 30-29 edge in shots, the Hounds took eight minor penalties to just four for the visitors.
Dean was not impressed, as he spoke of the need for the Soo players to control both their sticks and their emotions.
“I can’t want much more from this group. Five-on-five, it’s a 3-3 hockey game,” said Sting head coach Mathieu Turcotte, who spoke of the fact his club was minus several players. “I liked our compete and our attention to detail.”
Hounds defenceman Jakub Winkelhofer returned on Friday after missing 18 games with a lower-body injury.
Dean raved about the first-year player, calling his return game “fantastic. I can’t get over it. Usually, when you get back after all that time, it doesn’t look that good.”
Looking ahead to the Guelph game and the rest of the season, Mignosa spoke of the need for the club to play a simpler game.
“We need to trust that the system will pay off for us after 60 minutes,” he added.
