Greyhounds swept in weekend homestand

The results were disappointing, regardless of the scores.

That was the feeling around the Soo Greyhounds dressing room on Sunday evening after a 6-1 Ontario Hockey League loss at the hands of the Owen Sound Attack at the Essar Centre.

The loss came less than 24 hours after the Greyhounds dropped a 4-2 decision to the North Bay Battalion on Saturday night in the homestand opener.

Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister felt that Saturday’s loss to North Bay was worse than Sunday’s setback to the Attack.

“I thought (Saturday’s) performance was a lot worse than today’s,” Bannister said. “(Sunday) we pushed hard in the second period and had a lot of opportunities. Every mistake we made ended up in the back of our net.”

“I had no issue with the way we worked, especially in the second period,” Bannister also said. “It’s not like we spent a lot of time in our defensive zone. There wasn’t a lot off defensive zone play, it was all off the rush.”

David Miller had the lone goal for the Greyhounds, scoring on the power play in the final period. Goaltender Joseph Raaymakers stopped 21 shots in two periods of work before being pulled after 40 minutes. Matthew Villalta came in and stopped 10 shots in the final period.

The Attack opened the game quickly, scoring three times in the opening period, outshooting the Greyhounds 18-12 in the process.

“The start got us a lot of momentum,” said Owen Sound Coach Ryan McGill.

“We had a lot to prove to ourselves,” McGill also said. “We have been a very inconsistent team and our group really took it upon themselves to be good from start to finish and we were consistent. That’s what we were looking for and that’s what the guys wanted to take out of today.”

Petrus Palmu led Owen Sound with three goals in the win and McGill credited the veteran forward for his effort in the win.

“With Petey, we expect that out of him every night,” McGill said. “He’s a dynamic player and he’s a threat every time he’s on the ice.”

16-year-old forward Aidan Dudas added a pair of goals for the Attack while Nick Suzuki completed the scoring with a shorthanded goal.

McGill commended Dudas for getting into areas to get scoring chances in the game.

“Aidan did a good job of getting into the areas to shoot the puck and he shot the puck,” McGill said of the rookie forward. “Good things happen when you shoot the puck. He did a good job of that.”

Montreal Canadiens prospect Michael McNiven made 36 saves for the Attack.

McGill spoke specifically of McNiven’s work during a Greyhounds two-man advantage in the second period.

“On the five-on-three penalty kill in the second period, if we give up a goal, you never know (the Greyhounds) might have some life,” McGill said.

Bannister felt the Greyhounds didn’t have enough ‘Grade-A’ scoring chances and the ones they did have they couldn’t beat McNiven.

“We gave them quality scoring chances and they scored on them,” Bannister said. “We had some opportunities in the first to score and we didn’t capitalize. They were able to capitalize on the chances we gave them. It was all self-inflicted.”

Bannister also said that a goal called back in the second period by Boris Katchouk could have made a difference as well.

“That was when we were pushing,” Bannister said. “If we would have got rewarded then it gives us (a chance).”

Initially called a goal on the ice, the play was reviewed and the goal was called back.

Bannister said that the referees had the option to call the goal off and it was called off due to a referees discussion on the ice.

Next action for the Greyhounds is the opening game of a three-game East Division road trip that opens on Thursday night in Peterborough against the Petes. The trip continues on Friday night in Kingston against the Frontenacs before wrapping up next Sunday against the Ottawa 67’s.

****

OTHER SCORES

In Oshawa, Mitchell Vande Sompel scored a pair of goals while Domenic Commisso assisted on three as the Oshawa Generals doubled up the Barrie Colts 4-2. Alex DiCarlo and Serron Noel also scored for the Generals. Anthony Cirelli had a pair of assists for Oshawa. Jason Willms and Adrian Carbonara scored for Barrie.

In Kingston, Patrick White had the overtime winner as the Ottawa 67’s beat the Kingston Frontenacs 5-4. Artur Tyanulin had a goal and three assists for Ottawa while Austen Keating chipped in with a pair of goals. Sasha Chmelevski had a goal and an assist for Ottawa. Travis Barron also had a multi-point night for the 67’s with two assists. Nathan Dunkley and Jason Robertson had a goal and two assists each for the Frontenacs. Ted Nichol and Stephen Desrocher had the other Kingston goals.

In Sudbury, Akil Thomas scored on a penalty shot in overtime to give the Niagara IceDogs a 5-4 win over the Sudbury Wolves. Ondrej Machala had a goal and two assists for Niagara while Johnny Corneil added a goal and an assist. Christopher Paquette and Kyle Langdon also scored for Niagara. Graham Knott assisted on two IceDogs goals. Kyle Capobianco paced the Wolves with a goal and two assists. Ryann Valentini also had two assists for Sudbury. Dmitry Sokolov and MacAuley Carson also scored for the Wolves.

In Windsor, Jalen Chatfield scored at 4:04 of overtime to give the Windsor Spitfires a 5-4 win over the London Knights. Logan Brown assisted on four goals for the Spitfires while Gabriel Vilardi scored a pair of goals. Chatfield and Jeremiah Addison had a goal and an assist each in the win. Cristiano DiGiacinto had the other Windsor goal. Cliff Pu had a goal and two assists for the Knights. Evan Bouchard also had a pair of assists for the Knights. Robert Thomas, Max Jones and Janne Kuokkanen also scored for London.