Greyhounds can't overcome 'difficult period'

“Our team is not a team that can take 10 minutes off, let alone a period, and tonight we took 20 minutes off and it cost us.”

Those were the words from Soo Greyhounds coach John Dean after a 4-1 Ontario Hockey League loss to the Owen Sound Attack at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre in Owen Sound on Saturday night.

After outshooting the Attack 14-5 in the opening period and taking the play to the home team, the Greyhounds gave up three goals in the middle frame, two on mistakes and another on a turnover, and it was something the team couldn’t recover from.

Dean called the second period “a very difficult period for us tonight.”

“(Owen Sound) came back and adjusted to our neutral zone that was really good in the first,” Dean added. “They started carrying the play through the neutral zone and getting really easy entries and that changed the momentum of the game.”

“It’s tough to dig a hole like that,” Dean also said.

There were some positives for the Greyhounds following the loss, but the deficit after 40 minutes was too much.

“Our guys had a lot of attention to detail,” Dean said of the opening period. “The third period, we had some mistakes, but we were pushing and trying to score so there were mistakes made but I do like the resiliency of our group. It’s just that when you dig a hole that big, it’s tough to get out of.”

The Greyhounds went 1-for-5 on the power play in the game, which included a double minor to Owen Sound’s Daylon Groulx that the team couldn’t capitalize on.

Dean did say there were reasons to be optimistic about the power play despite the results with the man advantage.

“Special teams is about being timely with it,” Dean said. “When you play a good first period, you would love to score on the four-minute power play. We moved the puck around really well but couldn’t bury it.”

Jaden Peca had the lone goal for the Greyhounds, scoring on the power play early in the third period.

Greyhounds netminder Ethan Taylor made 20 saves.

Joe Carroll missed the game after leaving Friday night’s win over Guelph due to injury.

Dean reiterated that it was an upper-body injury and Carroll was not under concussion protocol.

Dean added that Carroll “will probably be out at least two weeks.”

Barret Kirwin paced the Attack offensively with a goal and an assist. Daylon Groulz, Matthew Philip, and Ethan Burroughs also scored.

Owen Sound goaltender Mack Guzda made 28 saves.

“We played really well,” Guzda said in an interview with RogersTV. “When you score four goals, it’s going to win you a lot of hockey games. The guys played really well and kept a lot of the shots to the outside and made things pretty easy on me today.”

The Greyhounds record drops to 5-3-0-0 heading into action on Monday afternoon in North Bay against the Battalion.

Owen Sound improves to 6-2-0-1.

In other action around the OHL on Saturday night, in Erie, Austen Swankler’s second goal of the night broke a 1-1 tie and helped the Erie Otters to a 4-1 win over the Guelph Storm. Hayden Fowler and Jack Duff had a pair of assists for the Otters.

In Flint, the Flint Firebirds scored four times in the second period in a 6-2 win over the Peterborough Petes. Dennis Busby, Braeden Kressler, Cody Morgan, and Brennan Othmann had a goal and an assist each for Flint.

In St. Catharines, Mitchell Russell had two goals and an assist as the North Bay Battalion beat the Niagara IceDogs 8-2. Matthew Struthers had a goal and two assists while Luke Moncada and Mason Primeau scored a pair of goals each.

In Saginaw, five goals in the third period were the difference as the Saginaw Spirit beat the London Knights 6-3. Cole Perfetti and Cole Coskey had a goal and two assists each for the Spirit. Damien Giroux had a pair of goals for Saginaw. Alec Regula had two goals and an assist for London.

In Windsor, Daniel D’Amico and Curtis Douglas had a goal and two assists each as the Windsor Spitfires beat the Sarnia Sting 8-5. Ryan Roth had two goals and an assist for the Sting.

In Barrie, Jason Willms had two goals and two assists while Riley Piercey had two goals and an assist as the Barrie Colts beat the Kingston Frontenacs 6-4. Billy Constantinou had a goal and two assists for Kingston.