'Frustrated' Greyhounds lose in overtime

It wasn’t surprising to hear the word frustrated following the Soo Greyhounds latest appearance on home ice.

The Greyhounds dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Flint Firebirds at the Essar Centre on Friday night in the second of a three-game Ontario Hockey League homestand.

Mathieu Henderson scored with 18 seconds left in the extra frame to give the Firebirds the victory.

“There are a lot of guys frustrated,” Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister said following the loss, which drops the team to 1-4-1 on home ice.

The second-year coach would also say “we’re looking for the cute way out instead of the hard way out.”

The Greyhounds fell behind three times in the game and Bannister spoke of puck management and missing the net on shot opportunities as an issue.

“On the first two shifts we had four blueline turnovers,” Bannister said. “And again we were passing up shots in quality areas and not getting pucks to the net.”

Reading the play entering the offensive zone is something that Bannister noted, citing Bobby MacIntyre’s goal power play goal in the second period that was started on a dump-in.

“We don’t want to preach dump-and-chase to our kids but they have to read the play a lot better,” Bannister said. “They’re trying to beat guys one-on-one instead of just chipping it behind them.”

MacIntyre also had a pair of assists in the game while Morgan Frost and Hayden Verbeek had the other Greyhounds goals. Joseph Raaymakers stopped 33 shots.

Everett Clark had a pair of goals for Flint while Cullen Mercer had the other Firebirds goal. Kole Sherwood assisted on a pair of goals.

“They had the momentum big time when they tied it up (in the third period) but our guys stuck with it and found a way,” said Flint Coach Ryan Oulahen.

Oulahen also spoke of the Firebirds defensive setup making life difficult on the Greyhounds.

“We tried to have their guys come through all five of our guys at any given time and it seemed to work,” Oulahen said.

Flint goaltender Connor Hicks made 24 saves.

“He played well,” Oulahen said. “He needed that. He needed a good bounce-back game for us. He’s had a couple of tough outings and he was really good for us.

The win improves the Firebirds record to 6-4-0-1 after what was a long season last winter.

Fresh faces and fresh blood,” Oulahen said of the difference from last season. “I’ve come in and not dwelled on the past with these guys. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. Everyone felt sorry for that group last year and right now it’s turn the page and start winning some hockey games.

“There’s a group of guys in our locker room that came into the Ontario Hockey League with high expectations and there are some guys that have underperformed,” Oulahen added.

Oulahen credited the play of players like Ryan Moore, Luke Kirwan and Sherwood for their early season play.

Moore entered action on Friday in a tie for the OHL lead in scoring with Erie’s Taylor Raddysh.

For the Greyhounds, the overtime loss drops its record to 7-4-1-0 heading into the final game of the homestand on Saturday night against the Ottawa 67’s.

****

OTHER SCORES

In Erie, Maksim Sushko had the overtime winner as the Owen Sound Attack beat the Erie Otters 4-3. Zachary Roberts, Kevin Hancock and Jonah Gadjovich had the other goals for the Attack. Taylor Raddysh, Shaun Bily and Allan McShane scored for the Otters.

In Mississauga, Ryan McLeod scored at 1:55 of overtime to give the Mississauga Steelheads a 6-5 win over the Niagara IceDogs. McLeod had a pair of goals while Owen Tippett had two goals and an assist for the Steelheads. Nicolas Hague chipped in with a goal and an assist. Jeremy Goodwin had the other Mississauga goal. Nathan Bastien and Austin Osmanski assisted on two goals each for the Steelheads. Christopher Paquette had two goals and an assist while Oliver Castleman and Ben Jones had a goal and two assists each for Niagara. Danial Singer had the other Niagara goal. Ryan Mantha also picked up two assists.

In Sudbury, Dylan Wells made 49 saves as the Peterborough Petes beat the Sudbury Wolves 4-2. Steven Lorentz had a goal and an assist while Adam Timleck, Josh Coyle and Logan DeNoble also scored for the Petes. Dmitry Sokolov and Chandler Yackimowicz scored for Sudbury. Alan Lyszczarczyk assisted on both Sudbury goals.

In Guelph, Givani Smith had two goals and an assist as the Guelph Storm beat the North Bay Battalion 5-2. Goaltender Liam Herbst stopped 35 shots for the Storm. Matt Hotchkiss, Nate Schnarr and Cedric Ralph also scored for Guelph. Austin Hall and Nic Sicoly assisted on two goals each. Adam Thilander and Brett Hargrave scored for North Bay.

In Kitchener, Dawson Carty made 44 saves as the Kitchener Rangers blanked the Hamilton Bulldogs 2-0. Connor Bunnaman and Adam Mascherin had a goal and an assist each for the Rangers. Kaden Fulcher made 28 saves for the Bulldogs.

In London, Max Jones had two goals and two assists as the London Knights beat the Saginaw Spirit 5-1. Goaltender Tyler Johnson made 37 saves for the Knights. Sam Miletic also scored a pair of goals while J.J. Piccinich added a goal and an assist. Victor Mete, Cliff Pu and Olli Juolevi assisted on two goals each for London. Tye Felhaber had the lone goal for Saginaw.

In Oshawa, Anthony Cirelli had two goals and an assist as the Oshawa Generals beat the Sarnia Sting 6-2. Eric Henderson and Serron Noel added a goal and two assists each for Oshawa. Mitchell Vande Sompel had a goal and an assist for the Generals. Renars Krastenbergs also scored for the Generals. Jordan Kyrou had both goals for Sarnia.