Greyhounds start road trip on flat note (video)

Playing in Sarnia hasn’t been kind to the Soo Greyhounds of late.

After dropping a 6-5 overtime decision to the Sarnia Sting just under two weeks ago, the Soo Greyhounds dropped a 4-0 decision to the Sting Wednesday night in the opening game of a three-game Ontario Hockey League road trip for the club.

On the heels of a 37-save performance in a win over Windsor on Tuesday night, Sting goaltender Anson Thornton stopped 30 shots for the shutout on Wednesday against the Greyhounds.

It was a tough night from start to finish for the visitors in the contest.

“We had a lot of passengers tonight,” said Greyhounds coach John Dean. “It was a lot of guys just willing to let other people do the job and be along for the ride tonight.”

“We need to have guys that want to fly the plane,” Dean also said. “Too many guys are ready to allow other guys to be the pilot.”

Overage defenceman Robert Calisti called it “a pretty embarrassing game for us.”

Calisti also said, “a lot of guys looked tired.”

“Especially our top guys, when we’re not scoring and we’re not playing well, the outcome is usually not in our favour,” Calisti added. “A lot of it is on the six or seven of us to bring it every night.”

Veteran forward Cole MacKay said there weren’t too many bright moments for the Greyhounds in the loss.

“Our power play wasn’t clicking. They outworked us for a good chunk of the game and this is a game, especially at the start of a road trip, that were going to try to scrap and move on and be way better on Friday.”

MacKay added that it was “tough to put into words” exactly what happened in the loss.

“Give (Sarnia) credit, they’re playing really well and beating some good hockey teams right now,” MacKay said. “We knew that coming in and got caught on our heels.”

Dean added that mistakes defensively proved even more costly on Wednesday in a game where the Greyhounds struggled in most facets of the game.

“You would think there would be a sense of excitement,” Dean also said. “Those games do happen, which is fine, but when they do happen, you can’t make those defensive errors that cost you the game. You’re going to have nights where you’re not generating and firing on all cylinders, but when you have those nights, you can’t make those hiccups that cost goals against.”

Dean said the first two goals in the game were “blatant errors that don’t need to go in the back of our net.”

“That gives a team fighting for their playoff lives a lot of energy,” Dean added. “We continued to look flat after that.”

Sarnia opened the scoring 61 seconds into the second period when Max Namestnikov went to the net and redirected a pass from Theo Hill on the right wing past Greyhounds starter Tucker Tynan.

The Sting took a 2-0 lead later in the period when Ethan Ritchie got the puck off a faceoff win deep in the Sault zone. He put a shot on net that deflected off a stick on its way to the net and past Tynan at 15:13.

On an early power play in the third period, Namestnikov extended the lead further when he beat Tynan glove side on a one-timer from the right faceoff circle. Theo Hill made a cross-ice pass from the left circle to get the rookie forward up at 4:42.

Angus MacDonell made it 4-0 with a shorthanded marker at 6:37 After a turnover in the Sarnia zone, MacDonell broke down the right wing, cut into the slot and proceeded to beat Tynan glove side, ending the night for Tynan.

Tynan stopped 12 of 16 shots before being pulled.

Dean said the goaltending change was meant to try to shake things up for the team.

“Tynan was great tonight,” Dean said. “In the first period, he made a flurry of saves even though there were limited chances.”

Samuel Ivanov made five saves the rest of the way.

Rookie forward Marco Mignosa sat out the game for the Greyhounds due to injury.

Dean said after Wednesday’s game that he doesn’t expect Mignosa to play this weekend as the road trip continues for the Greyhounds.

The Greyhounds return to action on Friday night when the team is in Flint to face the Firebirds before wrapping up weekend action the following night in Saginaw against the Spirit.

The loss, combined with a win by Windsor on Wednesday night over the Owen Sound Attack, drops the Greyhounds to third in the OHL’s West Division, one point behind the Spitfires.

The Greyhounds will take a 31-18-6-1 record into Friday’s game in Flint.

Meanwhile, Sarnia moves to 24-25-3-1. The team moves two points ahead of the Erie Otters and Kitchener Rangers in a battle for the final two playoff spots in the OHL’s Western Conference.