Greyhounds frustrated with late-game struggles

It’s been a frustrating part of their game.

Starting well, the Soo Greyhounds have struggled to close out games this season or finish games strong.

The issue reared its head on Friday as the Sarnia Sting scored three times in the final seven minutes of regulation time to beat the Greyhounds 5-2 in Ontario Hockey League action at the GFL Memorial Gardens.

The loss came in a game that, despite trailing by a pair of goals, saw the Greyhounds start strong, outshooting the Sting 16-7 in the opening period.

The game took a turn in the second and the Sting took advantage in the third after the Greyhounds scored a pair of goals in the middle stanza to tie the game.

Overage forward Kalvyn Watson said the Greyhounds “stopped playing the way we did in the first period” in the third period, which contributed to the loss.

“Our second period, we weren’t really good either, but we still found a way to put the puck in the net,” Watson said. “The first period was probably one of the best periods of hockey we’ve played as a group. We’re having a hard time playing a full game right now. It’s frustrating.”

Watson said the Greyhounds “have to play a little pissed off” when they return to action on Sunday in the final game of a five-game homestand.

“It’s been a bit of a trend for us where we’ve let things slip away from us late in games,” Watson said. “We have to play a little pissed off. We don’t want that to be our reputation.”

Greyhounds coach John Dean said the early parts of the third period were positive.

“I really liked our first 10 (minutes),” Dean said. “We played very strong and looked like a team that was prepared to pay the price to win. We generated a lot of scoring chances.”

“The second 10, the third goal against, we lose a net-front battle,” Dean said. “We lost net-front battles all night. They were very hungry in front of our net. They continuously put pucks from behind the goalline to the blue paint area. They were hungrier in front of our net than we were in front of theirs. We can’t lose games because of lost battles in front of our net, that’s for sure.”

Dean added that he felt net-front battles were costly in the loss.

Dean said the game-winning goal, which came off the stick of Ty Voit with 6:33 to go, was deflating.

For the Sting, the third period came down to puck management.

“It was more managing pucks a little better,” Sarnia coach Alan Letang said. “Our execution was better. The puck was bouncing quite a bit in the first and second. We were a little bit sloppy and we got back to shorter support, quick passes.”

Sarnia opened the scoring as Easton Wainwright went to the net and redirected a pass from Ethan Ritchie past Greyhounds goaltender Samuel Ivanov at 7:23 of the opening period. Ritchie took a pass in the high slot from Sandis Vilmanis as the Sting entered the Greyhounds zone to start the play.

Sarnia took a 2-0 lead when Nolan Burke bear Ivanov high short side from the left circle at 12:35.

With the Greyhounds shorthanded, Caeden Carlisle pulled the Greyhounds to within one in the second period. Carlisle took a pass from Bryce McConnell-Barker as he trailed the play and skated into the left circle before he beat Sarnia goaltender Benjamin Gaudreau at 8:56.

Justin Cloutier tied the game with four seconds to go in the period, Justin Cloutier poked in a loose puck in tight. The scramble came after Mark Duarte took a pass from Matthew Virgilio, but was stopped on a break by Gaudreau.

Ty Voit made it 3-2 Sarnia in the third when he scored on a rebound to the right of the Sault goal after a point shot by Ethan Del Mastro missed the net and deflected off the end boards to Voit.

Cooper Way made it a 4-2 game at 16:10 when he batted the puck out of the air past Ivanov from in tight after a wraparound attempt by Ryan Mast popped into the air to Way.

Way then sealed the win with an empty net goal with 2:05 to go.

Ivanov finished the night with 32 saves for the Greyhounds.

“Sammy was great tonight,” Dean said. “He gave us a chance to win. I don’t think we did a great job in front of him winning those net-front battles.”

Del Mastro assisted on three goals for the Sting in the victory.

Letang called Del Mastro “the best player on the ice tonight.”

“He just looked like a man out there,” Letang added.

Burke also had a three-point night with a goal and two assists while Voit had one of each for Sarnia.

Gaudreau stopped 30 shots for the Sting.

The Greyhounds return to action on Sunday afternoon with a game against the Windsor Spitfires. Puck drop at the GFL Memorial Gardens is 2:07 p.m.

“As a team, we’ll focus on the positives,” Dean said of the approach heading into the Windsor game. “That’s going to be our approach (Saturday) morning is to show all of the positive things we did, the things that we discussed over the course of the week that we thought we did well today. As individuals, if there’s trends in their game or some mistakes that are being made consistently, we’ll address that on a more individual basis.”

Dean said he doesn’t expect any returns from injury on Sunday against Windsor.

Overage forward Mark Duarte returned to the lineup while Charlie Schenkel, Andrew Gibson, Ethan Montroy, Owen Allard, and Connor Toms remain out.

Rookie forward Connor Clattenburg also sat out Friday’s game, serving the first of a two-game suspension for his third fight of the OHL season last weekend against Hamilton.

With the loss, the Greyhounds fall to 14-18-7-5 and sit tied with the Kitchener Rangers for eighth in the OHL’s Western Conference after the Rangers picked up a 6-3 win over Barrie on Friday night.

The Rangers have three games in hand on the Greyhounds as well and return to action on Saturday night in Erie.

The Greyhounds and Rangers sit three points behind the seventh-seeded Guelph Storm I the standings after Guelph dropped a 6-3 decision to Owen Sound.

Sarnia improves to 22-14-4-2 with Friday’s win and sit tied for fourth in the Western Conference with the Saginaw Spirit.