GREYHOUNDS: Exhibition play less about results, more about process

A sign in the Soo Greyhounds dressing room reads: "How you do anything is how you do everything.”

After the first game of a home-and-home series on Friday night for the Greyhounds against the Saginaw Spirit, the coaching staff hopes to learn a thing or two about the players remaining with the team as the exhibition schedule winds down.

The team opened up what seemed to be a comfortable 6-1 lead after 40 minutes, but things got a little too close for comfort as the Spirit battled back to make a game of it with the Greyhounds finally coming away with a 10-6 win at the GFL Memorial Gardens.

Greyhounds coach John Dean spoke following the game of a “fantastic start.”

“We saw a lot of the habits and details that we were looking for,” Dean added. “We took away time and space really well. When we took time and space away, it allowed our creative players to be creative because the puck was on our stick.”

“Clearly the second half of the game (was) extremely sloppy,” Dean added. “Very poor habits away from the puck. I’m really disappointed in the last 30. We’ll take it as a learning lesson.”

Saginaw coach Chris Lazary was pleased with the second half of the game from his club.

“About halfway through the game, we took the game over,” Lazary said. “Right now, it’s our young guys trying to learn our identity and trying get used to the OHL.”

Regardless of the result, Lazary also said that the primary focus through exhibition play isn’t necessarily the score.

“This time of the year, if you’re worried about coming into an exhibition game and winning the game and that’s your focus, then you’re not doing your job as a coach,” Lazary said. “Your focus has to be all of the things that you’ve talked about since camp opened and all of the things you want to do.”

“Now, it provides a lot of game footage of our guys showing the difference of what happens when you do it the right way and what happened when you don’t,” Lazary added.

For Dean, the game was “a bit of an opportunity missed.”

“We were starting to build a little bit of an identity here of how we want to play this season and I thought we got away from it for the first time,” Dean added.

After a quiet, and scoreless, opening period, the Greyhounds struck first in the second period.

Rookie forward Tate Vader beat Saginaw goaltender Kaleb Papineau glove side on a one-timer from the slot after a feed from Travis Hayes 3:54 into the middle stanza.

Just 17 seconds later, the Greyhounds took a 2-0 lead when Brady Martin beat Papineau, also glove side, alone in the slot.

Julian Fantino extended the lead to 3-0 at 6:47 with a shot from the left circle on a partial break after taking a pass from the defensive zone from Brodie McConnell-Barker. The play started after a turnover in the Greyhounds zone by Saginaw forward Michael Misa.

With the Greyhounds on the power play just over two minutes later, Brenden Sirizzotti made it a 4-0 game on a one-timer from the top of the left circle after a pass from Connor Toms at 8:52.

Saginaw got on the board at 17:31 when Will Bishop beat Greyhounds goaltender Charlie Schenkel from in tight to the right of the goal short side. The Greyhounds were short a man in deep on the play after forward Christopher Brown had his skate blade come loose and the sophomore couldn’t get to the bench in time for a change.

The Greyhounds rebounded on the next shift as Ethan Montroy beat Papineau on a scramble in tight 1:10 after Saginaw got on the board.

Owen Allard proceeded to make it a 6-1 game on the power play in the final minute of the period, beating Papineau with a backhand knuckler from in close.

The Greyhounds made it a 7-1 game 28 seconds into the third period as Justin Cloutier potted a rebound in close for the locals.

Vader picked up his second of the night just under two minutes later as he went to the net on an odd-man rush and redirected a pass from Marco Mignosa past Papineau at 2:23.

Martin then added his second of the night at 4:36, beating Papineau on a rebound in the slot after a shot by Caeden Carlisle was stopped.

Saultite Calem Mangone then scored for Saginaw on a chance from the slot to make it a 9-2 game at 6:49.

Valentin Zhugin then cut into the lead further as he deflected a Zayne Parekh shot past Schenkel at 8:33.

Just 1:18 later, Aiden Young scored on the power play to make it a 9-4 game and Michael Misa added a second power play goal just under four minutes later to close the lead further.

With 1:51 to go in regulation time, Saginaw’s Roberto Mancini batted in a rebound at the edge of the crease on a rebound of a shot by Young to make it a 9-6 game.

Martin capped off the scoring as time expired by scoring on a breakaway for the Greyhounds.

Martin finished the night with three goals and an assist to pace the Greyhounds offensively in addition to the two-goal night from Vader.

Hayes and Mignosa finished the night with three assists each for the Greyhounds.

Cloutier and Fantino had a goal and an assist each.

Schenkel stopped 20 shots for the locals.

Young and Misa had a goal and two assists each for Saginaw in the loss while Mangone and Zhugin had one of each.

Papineau made 20 saves for Saginaw.

The two teams wrap up their pre-season schedule on Saturday night in Saginaw in the back-end of a home-and-home weekend series.

Earlier in the day Friday, the Greyhounds announced the acquisition of overage forward Jack Beck from the Ottawa 67’s in exchange for a pair of draft picks.

Greyhounds general manager Kyle Raftis called Beck a “dynamic player.”

“He’s a dynamic player,” Greyhounds general manager Kyle Raftis said. “I find that every time the puck is on his stick, he just has that swagger and high-end skill that he’s going to make players around him better.”