Greyhounds struggle to end 2019 (video)

It was a key game against a division rival with important points on the line and it turned into a disappointing night for the Soo Greyhounds.

The Saginaw Spirit scored twice in the final 2:07 of regulation time to pick up a 3-1 Ontario Hockey League win over the Greyhounds at the Dow Event Center in Saginaw.

With just over two minutes to go in regulation time, Camaryn Baber took a shot from the slot that was deflected by Ethan Cardwell in close past Greyhounds goaltender Bailey Brkin for the game-winner.

It was a bounce-back game for Brkin though, who earned the praise of his coach following the game.

“It would have been a lopsided score if it wasn’t for Bailey,” said Greyhounds coach John Dean.

“Bailey was fantastic,” Dean added.

The Greyhounds coach went on to say the decision to start Brkin was tough after Ethan Taylor entered Saturday’s game against Sudbury and played well, helping the Greyhounds to a win over the Wolves.

“We owed it to Bailey for what he’s done over the last 13 or 14 games,” Dean said.

Brkin made 37 saves for the Greyhound

It was a game in which not much went well for the Greyhounds.

Dean said after the game “we didn’t deserve to win that hockey game.”

“They shrunk us really well in the defensive zone and I thought we got out-competed significantly,” Dean said. “It was tough to watch consistently losing one-on-one battles considering the significances of the game. If we’re going to play like that, I do think we did catch them being over-aggressive quite often and had a lot of odd-man rushes but we kept turning the puck over at the blueline and over-passing the puck. Combine those two things and it’s a recipe for a tough game.”

“We had too many turnovers,” added Greyhounds forward Alex Johnston. “We need to be safer with the puck and limit (turnovers) because we were in our end the whole game.”

Dean said he did like the response after Saginaw took the lead early as Robert Calisti scored 1:38 later to tie the game with a power play goal but the Greyhounds couldn’t build on the goal.

“You’d like to think that after that you would get a little energy and you start winning your battles a little bit more,” Dean said. “You’re not going to win every battle every night, but they won a majority of the one-on-one battles. At the end of the day, if you consistently lose one-on-one battles, it’s not going to be a good night.”

Cardwell finished the night with a pair of goals as he scored into an empty net with 1:13 to go to seal the Spirit win.

Cole Perfetti had the other Saginaw goal.

Spirit goaltender Marshall Frappier stopped 24 shots.

The loss drops the Greyhounds record to 18-17-2-0 and, with 38 points, the team sits tied for third in the OHL’s West Division with the Flint Firebirds.

Saginaw moves into top spot in the division with a record of 21-10-2-2, good for 46 points and a two-point lead over the Windsor Spitfires in the division.

The Greyhounds return to action on Friday night at home against Windsor at the GFL Memorial Gardens. The game opens up a stretch that will see the team play six of seven on home ice.