Greyhounds lose exhibition finale

Soo Greyhounds coach Mike Stapleton was blunt when describing the play of the Soo Greyhounds on Saturday night.

“We weren’t very good from the get-go,” Stapleton said shortly after a 5-3 loss to the Saginaw Spirit at the Essar Centre on Saturday. “We just weren’t very good. We got outworked.”

The Spirit used a four-goal second period to pick up the victory in what was the final exhibition game for both clubs. The period included the Spirit scoring three times in the final 1:11 of the middle frame.

“Tonight was a good response from our guys,” said Saginaw coach Greg Gilbert, whose team dropped an 8-0 decision to Sarnia on Thursday night. “We worked them pretty hard after the shellacking we got in Sarnia. They were embarrassed and wanted to come out with a good effort tonight.”

Ryan Sproul, Dylan Staples and Mitchell Dempsey completed the scoring for the Greyhounds in the loss while goaltender Matt Murray stopped 30 shots for the Greyhounds.

The Greyhounds were impressed with the play of import forward Sergei Tolchinsky, who saw his first game action since joining the team on Monday. The 17-year-old created numerous scoring chances, including a pair of breakaways on Saginaw goaltender Jake Paterson in the opening period.

“Sergei was really good. He created a lot of (chances) for us. He was one of the big positives for us tonight,” Stapleton said of the Russian forward. “You can tell he’s a smart player. He could have had four goals. He created a lot of opportunities for himself. If there’s a bright spot in our game tonight, it was him for sure.”

Tolchinsky spent much of the night on a line with Brandon Alderson at centre and Michael Schumacher on left wing.

Dylan Sadowy, Andrey Alexeev, Garret Ross, Justin Kea and Vincent Trocheck scored for the Spirit. Trocheck also had a pair of assists for Saginaw. Paterson stopped 31 shots.

“Jake was outstanding for us tonight,” Gilbert said of the Detroit Red Wings prospect.”

As far as roster moves, the Greyhounds enter the final days before the OHL regular season opens with 29 players still on the roster. Stapleton said following the game that the team plans to take the rest of the weekend before making any moves. Roster moves to get down to a more manageable number could come as early as Monday but Stapleton did say that he didn’t anticipate any moves this weekend as Greyhounds staff assess the roster heading into the regular season opener.

The Greyhounds open the regular season schedule on home ice on Friday night when they host division-rival Plymouth at the Essar Centre.

Photo Courtesy James Egan Photography

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