Veteran winger sparks celebration
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo courtesy of Natalie Shaver (OHLImages)
FULL PHOTO GALLERY | GAME HIGHLIGHTS | GAME CENTRE
Jordan Charron has scored prettier goals.
He’s also tallied game-winners.
But never before had he notched one in overtime.
Until Friday, that is.
The Soo Greyhounds third-year winger scored at 4:33 of OT to give the Soo Greyhounds a 4-3 victory over the Sarnia Sting in front of 3,833 at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
“It feels really good, 100 per-cent. Getting the winner in overtime is a good feeling,” said Charron, whose shot from the right circle eluded disappointed Sting netminder Ivan Tkach-Tkachenko. “I just saw it go off the short-side post and in.”
Just as a Soo powerplay had ended, Charron took a feed from defenceman Charlie Ashcroft and let fly.
The native of Ayr, Ont., notched his first goal of the season in front of his parents and grandparents, as the Hounds won their third straight, improving to 4-1-0-0 – good for top spot in the West Division.
“I’m super excited for the boys and just ready to go tomorrow,” added the 19-year-old (2007 birth year) Pittsburgh Penguins prospect, whose club concludes its first road trip of the season with Saturday’s 7 p.m. start in Flint.
“We started off a little bit sloppy – both teams,” added winger Colin Fitzgerald, who scored a couple of fluky goals as the Hounds snapped Sarnia’s two-game win streak, dropping the Sting to 3-1-1-0.
Fitzgerald said head coach Drew Bannister settled the Greyhounds down after the opening frame.
“Competing all over the ice and getting pucks in, that’s how we’re going to win games,” said the Otonabee, Ont., native. “We’re not going to win games 10-3. We’re going to win the way we did tonight, a one-goal game.”
The contest surely wasn’t a work of art, Bannister noted.
“Not a Picasso,” the coach began. “But it doesn’t have to be when you come on the road. We just simplified our game. But we did make it difficult for ourselves, especially in the first period and parts of the second.”
Bannister also spoke of how the Soo’s younger players, those skating on the road for the first time, struggled to varying degrees.
He called it a learning experience.
The victory offered a measure of revenge, after Sarnia took advantage of a series of Greyhounds penalties to post a 4-3, come-from-behind victory on Sept. 19 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
This time, on a night when both clubs recorded 34 shots, it was the Sting getting whistled for back-to-back minors in overtime.
That gave the visitors 4-on-3 and 5-on-3 opportunities.
“It probably shouldn’t have gotten to that point,” Bannister said of his club scoring late in overtime. “For whatever reason, our powerplay wasn’t very good. We didn’t move the puck quickly enough, 4-on-3, 5-on-3, you have to be able to finish. We weren’t looking to attack. I thought we were very stagnant.”
Asked about his team’s early-season record, Bannister agreed it represents a good start to the 2026-27 campaign.
“But to me, I don’t even think we’re scratching the surface of what this team can do when we start playing the way we need to,” he said. ”We’re still disconnected. We’re still learning our systems.”
The Soo opened the scoring at 12:55 of the first when Jeremy Martin’s shot from the right circle deflected in off a driving Fitzpatrick.
The home side tied the score at 16:35. Off a face-off, Brenner Lammings fired from the slot and beat Miller high to the glove side.
Just over three minutes later, with only 3.1 seconds left in the period, Chase Gaughan got behind defenceman Lukas Moore, took a feed on the left wing and beat Miller on the short side from in tight. The Hounds goalie would likely want that one back as Sarnia took a 2-1 lead.
Travis Hayes tied the game 2-2 at the 10:00 mark of the second period. At the side of the goal, Hayes made a slick redirect of a shot by Moore just inside the right point.
In the final frame, Fitzgerald skated down the right wing, looked to centre the puck and his attempt hit both defenceman Wyatt Herris and Tkach-Tkachenko. The puck caromed into the goal and the Soo led 3-2 at 4:08.
“The trashy goals are the ones which win you games,” Fitzgerald said. “The hockey gods were on my side and I’m just happy everything worked out.”
Without a goal over the first four games, he also spoke of how good it felt “to get the monkey off of my back.”
And, added Bannister: “If you’re around the blue paint, you’re going to score in this league.”
However, less than two minutes after Fitzgerald’s go-ahead marker, Allesandro Di Iorio’s shot from the right circle got through Miller to tie the score 3-3.
In large part because of the power-play opportunities, the Hounds had the majority of the OT chances.
Notes:
Rearguard Jakub Winkelhofer contributed a pair of assists on Friday.
Bannister confirmed rookie netminder David Vermirovsky will get the start in Flint.
The Hounds have parted ways with veteran winger Blake Arrowsmith and have assigned winger Karsten Barbeau to the Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League.
