Flat start buries Greyhounds against high-scoring Spitfires

Right from the drop of the puck, it was a day to forget in many ways for the Soo Greyhounds.

The Windsor Spitfires took advantage of a slow start, building up a lead through 20 minutes and cruising to a victory on Sunday afternoon, beating the Greyhounds 9-4 in Ontario Hockey League action at the GFL Memorial Gardens.

It’s a game in which there was nothing to like from a Greyhounds standpoint.

“Anytime you lose a game like that, you feel some embarrassment,” said overage forward Kalvyn Watson.

“We laid an egg, it’s pretty obvious,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said.

“I’m really disappointed in the first 40 minutes,” Dean added.

Dean said the Spitfires set a tone in the opening period, which was bad news for the Greyhounds, who couldn’t recover.

“They set the tone in the game, and I don’t think we responded very well,” Dean said of the opening 20 minutes.

Dean agreed that he would “definitely put it up there as one of our worst” when asked if the first two periods were among the worst the team has played this season.

For Windsor coach Marc Savard, there was a lot to like from the opening period, which saw the team take a 4-2 lead and outshoot the Greyhounds 13-3.

“I liked the way we skated,” Savard said. “We were jumping. We jumped on their D all night. We had a good two-one-two going tonight. The system and structure looked great tonight. Obviously we had a little breakdown on the breakaway goal, but besides that we were pretty flawless in that first period.”

Watson said the Greyhounds “obviously came out pretty flat.”

“Our second period was not something that you usually see from our team where we just kind of rolled over,” Watson also said.

 “I don’t think one thing in particular pissed me off the most,” Dean said. “For these guys, I want them to give themselves an opportunity to win and to feel good about their 60 minutes. The trend has been that we’ve had a tough last 10 minutes of games that we’re in. Today, it’s a real tough first 40 and these guys need to dig deep and give themselves an opportunity to feel good about their game. There can’t be many guys in there looking in the mirror and feeling great about the game.”

With a short road trip on the horizon, Dean said the game isn’t one in which the team plans to avoid revisiting to try to learn from.

“This is a game that was self-inflicted wounds, lack of compete, a lot of things that need to be shown and we play them our next game,” Dean said. “This is one we’re going to use (to show) what it looks like when we don’t play well, and good teams take advantage.”

“We play these guys four more times, our next game is against them so it’s something that you can’t really hold your head over either,” Watson said. “You have to be able to use it as a little bit of a firecracker and be ready to go.”

While there was a lot to be happy about from a Spitfires standpoint in the game, Savard said it was an effort throughout the lineup that was really pleasing.

“We didn’t have a guy that didn’t play well,” Savard said.

The Greyhounds opened the scoring as Jordan D’Intino stuffed home a chance on a breakaway on Joey Costanzo at 2:50 of the opening period.

The Spitfires wasted little time tying the game as Brett Harrison took a pass in the right faceoff circle from Michael Renwick and beat Greyhounds goaltender Samuel Ivanov stick side. The goal came 14 seconds after D’Intino’s goal.

Bryce McConnell-Barker made it 2-1 Greyhounds at 11:46 as he took a faceoff win by Kalvyn Watson and beat Costanzo glove from the top of the right circle.

Windsor again tied the game on the next shift as Liam Greentree got the puck to the left of the Greyhounds net and beat Ivanov stick side. The goal came 36 seconds after McConnell-Barker’s goal.

Matthew Maggio gave Windsor a 3-2 lead with a shot from the slot high glove side after taking a pass from Jacob Maillet with a minute to go in the period.

Maillet then made it 4-2 Spitfires in the final minute of the period when he redirected a back-door pass from Maggio past Ivanov.

Windsor made it a 5-2 game in the opening minute of the second period as Harrison took a pass in the slot from Maggio and beat Ivanov high stick side.

Alex Christopoulos extended the lead 1:12 later when he took a pass in the slot from Oliver Peer and beat Ivanov high stick side, ending the day for the Sault netminder.

Greentree got his second goal of the day at 4:34 when he beat Landon Miller from a sharp angle to the left of the Greyhounds net.

D’Intino made it a 7-3 game as he beat Costanzo on a back-door pass from Watson at 14:06.

Christopoulos got his second of the day 1:10 later when he scored on a rebound after Miller made the initial save on him on the play.

Marco Mignosa made it an 8-4 game at 5:08 of the third when he followed up on a rebound after Costanzo stopped his initial shot from the right wing and potted the loose puck in close.

Jacob Holmes capped off the scoring in the final minute as he beat Miller with a shot from the left point high stick side.

In addition to the two-goal day for D’Intino, McConnell-Barker had a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds and Watson assisted on a pair of goals.

Ivanov stopped nine of 15 shots before being pulled early in the second period.

Miller stopped 24 of 27 shots the rest of the way.

“Miller was fantastic,” Dean said of the rookie netminder. “He probably wants that first one back, but he gets thrown into the fire, we put him in a tough spot again and after that he settled in nicely.”

Maggio paced the Spitfires offensively with a goal and three assists in addition to the two-goal performances from Harrison, Greentree, and Christopoulos.

Maillet and Holmes added a goal and an assist each.

Renwick and Nicholas DeAngelis assisted on two goals each while Costanzo stopped 15 shots.

The loss drops the Greyhounds record to 14-19-7-5. With 40 points, the team sits tied with the Kitchener Rangers for eighth in the OHL’s Western Conference, though the Rangers have three games in hand on the Greyhounds.

Windsor improves to 29-12-3-1 with the win and leapfrogged the London Knights for top spot in the Western Conference. Windsor sits one point ahead of London though the Knights have a game in hand.

Sunday’s win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Spitfires.

Both teams entered Sunday with some injuries.

Charlie Schenkel, Andrew Gibson, Ethan Montroy, Owen Allard, and Connor Toms remain for the Greyhounds.

Dean said a potential return of any of them remains up in the air as the team prepares for the road trip.

For the Spitfires, forwards Shane Wright and Ryan Abraham missed the game due to injuries. Both made the trip with the team and are close to returning while defenceman Daniil Sobolev and goaltender Mathias Onuska were not on the trip due to injuries.