Shot generation not enough as Greyhounds drop opener to Spirit

With seven full days off between games, the Soo Greyhounds returned to action on Thursday night, but it was a disappointing return all around.

In a series that features the top two regular season teams in the Ontario Hockey League’s West Division, it was the Saginaw Spirit who drew first blood.

The Spirit scored four times over the final two periods in blanking the Greyhounds by a 4-0 score in the opening game of the best-of-7 Western Conference semifinal series at Saginaw’s Dow Event Center on Thursday night.

While he was happy with the number of initial chances they generated, Greyhounds coach John Dean said there’s still some work to be done offensively as the teams prepare for game two.

“The good thing is, there was a lot of chance generation,” Dean said. “That’s a huge positive and there’s a formula there clearly against this team to generate chances. At the same time, we have to have a killer instinct.”

“We got a lot of shots,” added rookie forward Brady Martin. “The shots were even at the end of the game. We have to get someone in front of the net and put in the rebounds and find ways to score.”

Veteran forward Owen Allard agreed that the Greyhounds need to be better converting on their chances.

“We’re going to have to score to win games, so it’s definitely something we’re going to focus on,” Allard said.

Saginaw coach Chris Lazary also spoke of the offensive chances the Greyhounds had in the game.

“The Sault did some good stuff,” Lazary said in speaking with the Spirit radio broadcast after the game. “(Goaltender Andrew Oke) for us was the difference. They did some good stuff in the O zone that we did anticipate on video was coming, but we did a poor job of reading and getting quick to coverage.”

“We have a lot of things to fix; a lot of things we need to work on,” Lazary also said.

For Dean, in addition to generating shots, he “loved our physicality” in the game, but added that there were some issues to be corrected going forward.

“The faceoff circle was a big issue that cost us,” Dean said. “Some transition plays where our forwards weren’t getting above a puck and our D were pinching at the same time, that cost us on a few occasions.”

The Greyhounds found themselves shorthanded four times in the opening period (with one penalty carrying over into period two) and killed off all four minors. Asked about the penalty kill, Dean said being shorthanded was a topic of discussion prior to the game.

“It’s just really disappointing that we’re one of the least penalized teams in the entire league and we’ve watched it all season Saginaw get the benefit of a lot of interesting calls and favourable calls that go their way,” Dean said. “It seems to be one of those things that we have to battle through this series and expect that from now on.”

Dean added that “a lot of their older guys target our younger guys.”

“It’s a really interesting situation,” Dean added. “There’s no protection for our younger guys at all. It’s pretty obvious that that’s the guys that they want to go at.”

Dean added that he felt the penalty kill gave the team momentum early.

Both coaches spoke of Oke’s play in the win as the Saginaw netminder picked up the shutout.

“It’s the biggest game he’s probably played to date in his career, second round, game one, one of our bigger rivals,” Lazary said. “He was outstanding. We gave up more chances than I would have liked and when we did, he made the saves.”

“Oke was good,” Dean said. “He played a good game.”

After the teams skated through a scoreless opening period that saw each club put up 14 shots, Saginaw opened the scoring in the middle period.

Saginaw’s Joey Willis grabbed the puck along the right-side boards and got it to Hunter Haight in the faceoff circle. Haight proceeded to skate through the circle before beating Greyhounds starter Charlie Schenkel with a shot that handcuffed the Sault netminder 4:40 into the period.

Saginaw took a 2-0 lead later in the period as Calem Mangone took a pass from Michael Misa on a 2-on-1 and beat Schenkel high stick side at 14:05. The goal came seconds after Bryce McConnell-Barker and Gavin Hayes couldn’t convert on a 2-on-1 at the other end of the ice.

Saginaw came out of the intermission and capitalized early on in the third period. Overage forward Alex Christopoulos took a short pass from Owen Beck in the neutral zone, skated into the Sault zone alongside Greyhounds defenceman Andrew Gibson and beat Schenkel stick side on a shot that handcuffed the Greyhounds netminder 55 seconds into the period.

Saginaw capped off the scoring with 4:35 to go as Matyas Sapovaliv took a turnover in the Sault zone and scored into an empty Sault net with Schenkel on the bench for an extra attacker.

Schenkel made 31 saves in the loss.

“Charlie probably wants a couple of those squeakers back, but he gives us an opportunity,” Dean said of the veteran netminder. “It’s tough to analyze that when you don’t score a goal over 60 minutes. I don’t think it’s Charlie’s best game, but I don’t think it’s the difference by any means in a bad way.”

Oke made 39 saves for the shutout for Saginaw.

Game two is in Saginaw on Saturday night before the series shifts to Sault Ste. Marie for games three and four on Monday and Wednesday nights.