‘Unnecessary mistakes’ costly in Game 1 setback
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo courtesy of Hailey Tripodi
GAME HIGHLIGHTS| GAME CENTRE
In a playoff series where miscues are magnified, a couple of second period lapses were surely problematic for the Soo Greyhounds on Friday.
The Kitchener Rangers took advantage of the mistakes to score twice, before adding an empty-net tally in a 3-1 victory over the Hounds in front of 7,352 at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
Able to hold off the charging Greyhounds in the third period, the Rangers grabbed a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven, Western Conference semifinal, heading into Game 2 on Sunday (7 p.m.) at the Aud.
“We felt the opportunities against were self-inflicted and very much inside our control,” said Hounds head coach John Dean. “Those were unnecessary mistakes. You want to make the opposition beat you, you don’t want to beat yourself.”
“A couple of bad plays ended up in the back of our net. But the guys got the nerves out in the second period,” added winger Marco Mignosa, whose team had been outshot 22-13 through 40 minutes, before taking control of play in the final frame. “We got better as the game went on and had a really dominant third period.”
After a slow start in the opening frame –“It wasn’t Hounds hockey,” Mignosa explained – the Hounds fell into a 2-0 hole in just over eight minutes in the middle period.
After Mignosa drew iron with a shot early in the second, the Rangers got on the board at the 2:15 mark.
Carter George stopped a Gabriel Chiarot shot from the right-wing circle, but the rebound came out to the front of the net. Haeden Ellis got inside of defenceman Spencer Evans and banged it home.
Ellis notched his second of the night at 8:05. Following a Carson Andrew turnover in the neutral zone, Alexander Bilecki sent the puck to the net from the right circle. On the backhand, Ellis redirected it through the five-hole for a 2-0 advantage.
George kept his team alive with a big stop on Tanner Lam just 1:49 before the second intermission. In the first period the veteran netminder made a great pad save on Sam O’Reilly with 5:40 remaining.
“Carter was great. He bailed us out of a tough first 20,” said Dean.
The Hounds were a different team in the final frame, out-skating and outshooting the home side 15-4 for a 28-26 advantage overall.
Brady Martin rang one off the post early in the third.
At the 6:25 mark, Quinn McKenzie came streaking down the right wing, before firing from a bad angle and beating goaltender Christian Kirsch high on the short side. That trimmed the Soo’s deficit to 2-1.
But Kirsch was equal to the task the rest of the way. Sam O’Reilly capped the scoring with an empty-net tally with 1.3 seconds left in regulation.
“After that third period, we know we’re a great team when we play Hounds hockey and compete hard,” McKenzie said. “Our forecheck was great, we were beating them to pucks and we didn’t slow the game down at all.”
“We’re really proud of the resiliency of our group,” said Dean. “I really liked the way we progressed over the course of the 60 minutes.”
During a postgame interview on the Rangers TV broadcast, head coach Jussi Ahokas didn’t like the way his club finished up on Friday.
“Not our best third period,” he said. “But we got the job done. The last three minutes, we defended really well.”
Ahokas also appreciated the performance of the line of Ellis between wingers Lam and Chiarot.
“Great job by our third line,” he said. “They worked, they worked. Ellis, great goals, and Chiarot played unreal.”
Chiarot and Bilecki contributed two assists each.
As a team, the Hounds will review video on Saturday and make any necessary adjustments prior to Sunday’s clash.
Dean agreed his charges need to play a cleaner game.
“We have to get rid of the self-inflicted mistakes and puck-management issues,” he began. “We need to bear down on our chances. I thought we generated more than enough to score some goals tonight.”
“We need to tighten things up in the D-zone, win more battles and have a little more desperation on the defensive side,” added Mignosa. “If we come out flying and play the way we did in the third, we’ll be fine.”
Notes:
Dean said centre Chris Brown (upper-body injury), the club’s second-leading scorer in the regular season, will miss his second straight game in this series on Sunday.
“But he’s getting close,” the coach added.
Winger Justin Cloutier is day-to-day after missing the game for precautionary reasons, related to the E. coli infection he battled through over the fall.
Dean said he couldn’t predict whether the overage would be available on Sunday.
Meantime, Windsor stopped Flint 4-2 on Friday in the first game of the conference’s other semi.
