Greyhounds show Sting 'too much respect' in loss

The sport of hockey is all about respect and Soo Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister feels that there was too much of it given to the Sarnia Sting Wednesday night.

Outshot 14-5 in the opening period and 38-26 overall, the Greyhounds dropped a 2-1 decision to the Sting in front of an announced crowd of 4,314 at the Essar Centre in one of three games on the Ontario Hockey League schedule on Wednesday night.

The reason for the loss was a simple one for Bannister.

“We gave them too much respect,” said Bannister. “When you give a team as talented as they are the time and space in the D zone, they’re going to score goals and that’s what they did tonight. We got too loose and gave them too much time and space.”

Bannister would also say that nothing the Sting did forced the Greyhounds into the type of game they played.

“I don’t think it was anything they did,” Bannister said. “It was us. We just sat back. There were two shifts in the third period where we sat back and let them do whatever they wanted. The players that they have, if you give them time and space, they’re going to create scoring chances.”

Goaltender Brandon Halverson stopped 36 shots.

“He was outstanding,” Bannister said. “We wasted a good performance by our goalie tonight.”

Travis Konecny tied the game for Sarnia midway through the third period on a shot that Halverson didn’t see through traffic.

“I was watching him wheel and the second I didn’t see him is when he released (the puck) and I didn’t hear the shot either,” Halverson said.

The veteran netminder was pleased with his game overall saying he “played well.”

Jordan Kyrou had the other Sarnia goal, scoring the game-winner at 15:52 of the third period.

Zach Senyshyn had the lone goal for the Greyhounds.

Sting Coach Derian Hatcher spoke of the start the Sting had following the game.

“We played well. We talked about getting a good start and doing whatever we had to do in warmup to make sure we were ready to go,” Hatcher said. “We had a good start. We didn’t score but we did a lot of good things.”

The first-year coach of the Sting also praised the play of Konecny since joining the team via trade prior to the January deadline.

“He’s been like this since we got him,” Hatcher said. “He’s been tremendous and been like that almost every night.”

Sting goaltender Justin Fazio stopped 25 shots.

“Faz played well,” Hatcher said. “Sometimes it’s not about the amount, it’s about the ones you stopped. He stopped two breakaways in the first period. If those go in it’s a whole different game.”

Despite the loss, the Greyhounds didn’t lose any positioning in the OHL’s Western Conference standings as the Owen Sound Attack also lost on Wednesday, dropping a 5-0 decision in Barrie to the Colts.

The Greyhounds remain one point up on the Attack with 54 points and a record of 24-21-5-1.

The Sting, now 29-15-5-2, move 11 points up on the Greyhounds in the standings with the win

The Greyhounds return to action on Friday night with a home game against the Owen Sound Attack. Puck drop is set for 7:07 p.m.

The following night the Greyhounds travel to Sudbury to take on the Wolves. The game begins a stretch that sees the team play nine of 11 games on the road before returning home to end the regular season with five-straight at home.

Notes: Defenceman Gustav Bouramman was not suspended after receiving a match-penalty for slew-footing in Sunday’s win in Mississauga.

The match penalty comes with an automatic two-game suspension but the league rescinded the suspension on Wednesday afternoon, allowing the sophomore defenceman to play in Wednesday’s contest.

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OTHER SCORES

Tuesday

In Ottawa, Evan deHaan’s goal at 4:44 of overtime gave the Ottawa 67’s a 4-3 win over the North Bay Battalion. Ottawa goaltender Liam Herbst made 32 saves while Artur Tyanulin had a goal and two assists. Ben Fanjoy added a goal and an assist while Nathan Todd also scored. Mathew Santos, Max Kislinger and Zach Poirier scored for North Bay.

Wednesday

In Hamilton, Jordan Maletta scored the game-winning goal at 3:11 of overtime to give the Niagara IceDogs a 3-2 win over the Hamilton Bulldogs. Maletta had a pair of goals while Josh Ho-Sang had a goal and an assist for the IceDogs. Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 30 shots. Matt Luff had both goals for Hamilton while Matthew Strome picked up two assists. Hamilton goaltender Connor Hicks stopped 34 shots.

In Owen Sound, Kevin Labanc had three goals and an assist while Mackenzie Blackwood stopped all 42 shots he faced as the Barrie Colts blanked the Owen Sound Attack 5-0. Andrew Mangiapane assisted on three Barrie goals. Julius Nattinen and Keigan Goetz also scored. Michael McNiven got the start for Owen Sound, stopping 19 of 22 shots in two periods of work. Daniel Dekoning played the third period, stopping 11 of 13 shots.

The other game on the OHL schedule on Wednesday between the London Knights and Erie Otters in Erie was an 8 p.m. start and not complete at the time of writing.