RECAP; Hounds need to clean things up
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by @pictureboymedia
Sloppy play and discipline.
The Soo Greyhounds exhibited too much of the former and not enough of the latter on Tuesday.
That allowed the Guelph Storm to stop the Hounds 6-3 before 2,547 at Sleeman Centre, jumping back into the Western Conference quarter-final in the process.
The Hounds will take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series into Thursday’s fourth game in Guelph (7 p.m.). Game 5 is set for Saturday in the Sault.
“We lost the game in the first period,” said defenceman Rob Calisti, whose club fell into a 3-1 hole after 20 minutes and was never able to fully recover. “We came out flat, we had a lot of turnovers. Maybe we were overly excited.”
“Definitely disappointing,” added winger Cole MacKay, whose team was much better over the final 40 minutes. “That’s obviously not what we wanted to accomplish in the first period.”
Head coach John Dean praised the Storm for coming out with a sense of purpose.
“Combine that with us being asleep at the wheel and lacking energy,” added Dean, whose team opened the series by securing 3-0 and 4-1 victories at home last week. “Maybe success got to our heads a little bit? Unfortunately, we got caught off guard.”
Looking for a fast start and determined not to go down 3-0 in the series, the Storm wasted little time on Tuesday.
Ben McFarlane banged a rebound past Tucker Tynan just 1:46 in before Jake Karabela took advantage of a neutral zone turnover just 41 seconds later. Matthew Papais found Karabela all alone on the right side of the ice and he beat Tynan high to the glove-hand side for a 2-0 lead.
The Hounds fought back, trimming their deficit to 3-2 early in the second period when MacKay had Jordan D’Intino’s point shot deflect off of his leg and past Storm netminder Jacob Oster at the 6:18 mark.
But less than four minutes later, captain Ryan O’Rourke displayed a lack of discipline taking a double-minor for high-sticking.
Just before the first minor expired, Valentin Zhugin beat Tynan with a one-timer in front of the Soo goal and the home side had restored its two-goal cushion. The power-play marker made it 4-2 and stood up as the winner.
Asked about the double-minor, Dean spoke of how “one of the big points we focus on is controlling our emotions and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight. They capitalized for the game-winning goal on that penalty.”
O’Rourke finished the evening with five minor penalties, before taking a 10-minute misconduct after Guelph’s first of two empty-net goals at 18:24 of the final period.
“It’s playoff hockey and emotions run high. But penalties killed us,” said Calisti.
“Hopefully, we’ll chalk that up to a real good learning experience,” added Dean. “The last two games we took some undisciplined penalties, but we were on the right side of the scoreboard.”
O’Rourke was hit with a 10-minute misconduct in Game 1 of the series last Thursday, while Calisti drew the same penalty in Game 2 on Saturday.
“Maybe we didn’t learn our lesson? Tonight, this was a lesson we did not need to learn again,” the coach noted.
“We’re all pretty hard on ourselves,” MacKay said when asked about the lack of discipline. “We’ll look at ourselves in the mirror and being disciplined will definitely be a key going into Game 4.”
Trailing 4-2, Bryce McConnell-Barker opened the third period by showing off his accurate shooting touch. From the slot, on a feed by Calisti, the rookie centre snapped one past Oster high to the blocker side. That drew the visitors to within 4-3 just 54 seconds in.
But with Tynan on the bench for an extra attacker, McFarlane’s second goal made it 5-3 and Brayden Guy wrapped things up with another empty-netter at 19:54.
“This was the first time we’ve been behind in this series,” said MacKay, who led his club with a goal and an assist. “Our response was very good. We just couldn’t find a way to get that tying goal and force overtime.”
“I like the compete of our group,” added Dean, whose club held a 39-38 edge in shots. “We made some amateur mistakes, but that’s going to happen. I liked the way we battled. There’s no question about the belief in our room.”
The Hounds also liked the way in which they killed penalties, limiting the Storm to just Zhugin’s power-play marker in six man-advantage opportunities.
Dean praised Tynan saying the veteran goalie “continues to be a rock for us.”
McFarlane finished with a pair for the winners while Guy had a goal and two assists and Karabela added a goal and an assist. Danny Zhilkin had the other goal for Guelph, which played minus standout defenceman Daniil Chayka (non-COVID illness).
On the power play, Tye Kartye scored his third goal of the series in defeat. O’Rourke contributed a pair of assists.
“This is playoffs. You’re going to go through ups and downs,” said MacKay. “We’re going to forget about this one real quick and get back at it on Thursday.”
“It’s a crucial game,” McConnell-Barker said of Thursday’s clash. “A slow start and a lack of discipline cost us this game. We need to have a better start.”
The London, Ont., native also spoke of how he can’t wait for Game 4.
“I’m pretty excited to play – we all are,” McConnell-Barker said. “We have something to prove in the next game.”
