Greyhounds drop overtime decision to Attack

It wasn’t a shocking answer by any means.

“We were lucky to get a point,” said Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister following a 2-1 overtime loss to the Owen Sound Attack in front of an announced crowd of 4,056 at the Essar Centre on Friday night in Ontario Hockey League action.

The game was a battle for positioning in the OHL’s Western Conference as the two teams were separated by a single point heading into the game.

“We certainly weren’t deserving of a point. They were the better hockey team. That’s the only good thing we can take out of it. The positives were that we snuck out a point and our penalty killing was really good and our goaltending was excellent.”

Brandon Halverson made 38 saves for the Greyhounds.

“He was excellent again,” Bannister said. “He gave us a chance to win in a hockey game where we didn't deserve to win it. There’s not much else you can say. He played extremely well for us. All you want is for your goalie to give you an opportunity to win and it’s unfortunate for us that we didn’t play better in front of him.”

After a scoreless opening period, the Greyhounds struggled in the middle frame as the Attack would outshoot the home side 12-3.

“For some reason we didn’t want to funnel pucks to the net,” Bannister said of the second period. “We didn’t have a lot of traffic and not a lot of second opportunities. We weren’t involved in the game.”

“They did a good job in the neutral zone taking away time and space in the neutral zone and being right up on us,” Bannister also said. “We weren’t able to get a lot of transition going. Sometimes simple is better and we tried to simplify it and get our ‘D’ skating the puck. In cases like that, it’s almost like a chip-and-chase game where you put pucks behind them and go get it.”

After Boris Katchouk gave the Greyhounds a 1-0 lead early in the third, Jacob Friend would tie the game for Owen Sound when his point shot found its way through traffic past Halverson, setting the stage for Nick Suzuki’s overtime winner.

Cruising through the slot, Suzuki redirected a point shot by Thomas Schemitsch to give Owen Sound the extra point.

For Attack coach Ryan McGill, the game started off as a “track meet” that the team didn’t want to get in to.

“They’re a fast team and in the first 10 minutes of the game I think we thought we were going to get into a track meet which we’re not sure we have the right pair of running shoes for,” said McGill. “We certainly did a lot better job in the neutral zone in the second and third periods.”

“To come in against a team with this amount of speed was good for us,” McGill also said. “It was a big game for us.”

The win pulls the Attack, 23-19-6-3, into a tie for sixth in the Western Conference with both teams at 55 points. The Greyhounds, 24-21-6-1, currently hold the position with one more win.

The Greyhounds return to action on Saturday night on the road in Sudbury against the Wolves.

The game opens a stretch of action that sees the team play nine of its next 11 games away from home.

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OTHER SCORES

Thursday

In North Bay, Brett Hargrave scored a pair of goals as the North Bay Battalion beat the Saginaw Spirit 4-1. Cam Dineen added a goal and an assist for the Battalion. Goaltender Jake Smith made 28 saves. Saginaw goaltender Evan Cormier stopped 32 shots. Mitchell Stephens had the lone Saginaw goal.

In Peterborough, Jeremy Brodeur made 37 saves as the Oshawa Generals beat the Peterborough Petes 4-1. Brodeur got the start for the Generals after Justin Nichols, who was scheduled to start, was injured during the warmup. Riley Stillman had a goal and an assist for Oshawa. Lukas Lofquist added a pair of assists. Domenic Commisso, Alex Renaud and Jalen Smereck also scored for Oshawa. Eric Cornel scored the only goal for the Petes.

In Barrie, Kevin Laban had a goal and three assists as the Barrie Colts beat the Hamilton Bulldogs 7-6. The Colts scored four times in the third period to erase a 6-3 deficit. Andrew Mangiapane had two goals and an assist. Anthony Stefano also scored a pair of goals while Julius Nattinen added a goal and an assist. Dylan Sadowy also scored. Cordell James assisted on two goals for Barrie. Matt Luff had two goals and two assists for Hamilton while Niki Petti added a goal and two assists. Ben Gleason assisted on three Bulldogs goals. Matthew Strome (one goal, one assist) and Ondrej Kachyna (two assists) also had multi-point nights for Hamilton. Michael Cramarossa and Joseph Mizzi also scored for Hamilton.

Friday

In Kingston, Michael Dal Colle’s goal at 13:03 of the second period was the game-winner as the Kingston Frontenacs beat the Windsor Spitfires 2-1. Goaltender Lucas Peressini made 32 saves for Kingston while Lawson Crouse also picked up a goal. Mario Culina made 37 saves for Windsor. Connor Chatham had the lone Spitfires goal.

In Ottawa, Leo Lazarev made 31 saves as the Ottawa 67’s blanked the Oshawa Generals 3-0. Stepan Falkovsky, Nathan Todd and Travis Barron had the Ottawa goals. Jeremy Brodeur made 32 saves for Oshawa.

In Sudbury, seven different players had goals as the Sudbury Wolves beat the Saginaw Spirit 7-3. Reagan O’Grady, Danny Desrochers, Brady Pataki, Michael Pezzetta and Mikkel Aagaard had a goal and an assist each for the Wolves. Patrick Murphy, Kyle Capobianco and Matt Schmalz had two assists each. Alan Lyszczarczyk and Ryan Valentini also scored for Sudbury while goaltender Troy Timpano made 38 saves. Mitchell Stephens had two goals and an assist for Saginaw. Matthew Kreis also scored for the Spirit.

In Guelph, a five-goal second period lifted the Sarnia Sting to a 6-2 win over the Guelph Storm. Travis Konecny had two goals and an assist for the Sting while Nikita Korostelev also had a pair of goals. Jordan Kyrou added a goal and an assist while Patrick White also scored for the Sting. Justin Fazio made 35 saves for Sarnia. Luke Burghardt and Isaac Ratcliffe scored for Guelph.

In Kitchener, Cullen Mercer’s goal with one minute left in the third period was the game-winner as the Flint Firebirds held on for a 3-2 win over the Kitchener Rangers. Brent Moran made 33 saves for Flint. Ryan Moore had a goal and an assist while Will Bitten also scored for Flint. Ryan MacInnis and Jeremy Bracco had a goal and an assist each for Kitchener.

In London, Mitchell Marner had two goals and an assist as the London Knights beat the Niagara IceDogs 3-1. Christian Dvorak assisted on a pair of London goals. Owen MacDonald also scored for the Knights. Brendan Perlini had the lone goal for Niagara.

In Mississauga, Nicolas Hague’s power play goal 31 seconds into the third period was the winning goal as the Mississauga Steelheads beat the Erie Otters 5-4. Alex Nylander assisted on three goals for Mississauga while Daniel Muzito-Bagenda scored a pair of goals. Hague (one goal, one assist), Nathan Bastien (one goal, one assist) and Josh Burnside (two assists) also had multi-point nights for the Steelheads. Everett Clark had the other Steelheads goal. Kyle Maksimovich, Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome had a goal and an assist each for Erie. Haydn Hopkins also scored for the Otters.