Greyhounds come from behind, beat Spirit (Updated)
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 by: Brad Coccimiglio
The Soo Greyhounds have struck again.
In what has become the recurring theme of the Greyhounds season thus far, the team rebounded from a 5-3 deficit against the Saginaw Spirit on Wednesday night to win 6-5, marking the fourth time the team has done so already in the young Ontario Hockey League season.
The Greyhounds battled back after trailing 4-1 early in the second period to cut the Spirit lead to one but an early power play goal in the third period put the Greyhounds down 5-3. The Greyhounds proceeded to scored three unanswered goals, including two 16 seconds apart completing the comeback and improving their record to 4-1.
“I give credit to our kids,” said Greyhounds coach Mike Stapleton. “After the fifth goal I thought they were going to shut it down but they didn’t. They found a way to keep pushing on. We got a huge goal from (Andrew) Fritsch and just moved on from there.”
“When Saginaw scored the fifth goal, I’ve never been so proud to see them not lie down and give up,” added Stapleton. “They went right back out on the next shift and put one in their net.”
Mark Petaccio scored a pair of goals for the Greyhounds, including the game-tying goal at 12:19 of the third period, which set the stage for Nick Cousins to pot the game-winner just 16 seconds later. Petaccio was moved onto a line with David Broll and Brandon Alderson in the second period and the trio helped spark the Greyhounds.
“That whole line, I challenged them to shut down (Vincent) Trocheck and they went out and not only shut him down but scored some big goals. I can’t say enough about Alderson. He’s been super all year and so has Broll and Mark was ready for the challenge tonight.”
Cousins, Michael Schumacher and Andrew Fritsch all had a goal and an assist in the win while Broll added a pair of assists for the Greyhounds in the win. Jared McCann chipped in a highlight-reel goal in the third period when, with the teams playing four-on-four, he broke down the left wing and beat Saginaw goaltender Jake Paterson high to the short side, just underneath the crossbar. The goal made the score 4-3 at the time.
Greyhounds goaltender Matt Murray stopped 39 shots in the win.
Vincent Trocheck led the way for Saginaw with a pair of goals and an assist in the loss.
“Trocheck has been a really good leader for us,” said Spirit coach Greg Gilbert. “It’s been other guys that need to step up. I’m more concerned about other guys, our second- and third-year guys, more than anybody else. The young guys are going to make mistakes coming from minor hockey into this league. It’s the guys that this is their second year now, and some guys it’s their third year, that I’m not very impressed with.”
Garret Ross and Frank Schumacher had two assists each for the Spirit while Jimmy Lodge, Grant Webermin and Carlos Amestoy also scored for Saginaw. Spirit goaltender Jake Paterson stopped 21 shots in the loss.
“We need to be better,” said Gilbert. “It was silly mistakes. When we were up 4-1, everybody wanted to be a superstar and stickhandle through everybody and we ended up playing most of the third period in our end. We’re not a very mentally tough team right now.”
The Greyhounds return to action on home ice on Friday night when they host the Kitchener Rangers in a 7:07 p.m. start. The game also marks the annual Pink in the Rink in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
