Hounds doubled up in Kingston

KINGSTON – Just one night after a solid effort against the Peterborough Petes, the Soo Greyhounds struggled to find that effort again.

The Greyhounds dropped a 6-3 decision at the hands of the Kingston Frontenacs in Kingston on Friday night. Thanks in part to a slow start and a strong game by the Frontenacs Chris Stewart, the Greyhounds will now look to Sunday afternoon’s contest in Ottawa as redemption.

A bad goal in the opening minute of the game put the Greyhounds behind the eight-ball early.

“It was a bad goal to start the hockey game, said Greyhounds coach Craig Hartsburg. “We turned the puck over and we didn’t get a save when we needed it. The first shot of the game was just straight on the ice. It shouldn’t have went in the net.”

Frontenacs coach Bruce Cassidy credited the quick start to a hit thrown by Bobby Bolt on Greyhounds defenseman Michael Quesnele early on as the key to their good start. The hit shook Quesnele up, though he would return, and Greyhounds veteran Brad Good stepped in to fight Bolt.

“At home we’ve been up and down with that and tonight we made a point of getting after them. Bobby Bolt set the tempo early with a great hit,” said Cassidy. “They went after him, he responded and got us on the power play. I gave him a lot of credit for being the guy that got it going. From there it just snowballed with our top two lines, and even our third line.”

Cassidy added that a week of strong practices was also a big help.

“They were just a little more up-tempo. Something I probably would have let slide a couple of weeks ago, detail-work in our practice and pace, we got back at it this week,” he said. “It wasn’t so much punishment as it was trying to get our tempo up and our urgency in practice. Mostly it was moving the puck around, getting it to the net, creating space for ourselves and second chances. I think the guys actually appreciated that because they responded very well. It was one of our best weeks of practice.”

Chris Stewart paced the Frontenacs offense with four goals and an assist on the night while the line of Stewart, Bobby Hughes, and Cory Emmerton combined for 10 points in the win. Stewart’s third goal, at 3:27 of the second period, chased Greyhounds starter Kyle Gajewski from the game. Matt Hache entered and was solid.

“Matt was good. Matt did a good job keeping us where we were, but we didn’t play very well or a very smart game,” said Hartsburg. “We weren’t very smart in the game right from the start. We have to be a good team and we weren’t a good team tonight. We’re not going to win because one or two guys carry us.”

Emmerton and Peder Skinner scored the other Frontenacs goals but Stewart was the attraction in the win. Cody Thornton, Andrew Desjardins, and Josh Godfrey scored for the Hounds.

“He put a lot of pressure on himself lately. I told him the best way to be a captain in this league is to lead by example, go out and play hard,” said Cassidy of Stewart. “That’s what he did and hopefully it will get him out of that funk he was in.”

“I think we knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Look at recent play of theirs and it hasn’t been up to standards,” Cassidy said of his top line. “They’ll be the first to tell you. If they don’t bring at least their ‘B’ to ‘B+’ game we’re in trouble. You’re not going to have your ‘A’ game every night but they do need to be our best players and they were tonight.”

After struggling through the first two periods, the Greyhounds began to battle back, cutting the Frontenacs lead from 5-1 entering the period to 5-3 late. Stewart sealed the win with an empty net goal in the final minute.

“I told them to be good defensively (in the third period),” Hartsburg said. “That was the difference. When you’re good defensively, you have the puck more. In the first two periods we were aweful defensively and they had the puck the whole game.”

Cassidy went on to say that the third period timeout he called when the Greyhounds cut the lead to 5-3 helped settle his troops.

“I think every team that gets behind, nine out of ten times there’s going to be a push. Their push happened to be during a four-on-four where we got a little bit lazy on our backchecks,” said Cassidy. “They had a couple of three-on-two’s and they capitalized on one of them. All of a sudden there’s 10 minutes left and they’re down 3. If they get one in the next minute, they’re down two with nine minutes to go.

“That’s why we called the timeout. We let them back into the game,” he added. “Now we’ve got a nine minute hockey game, but the good thing is we’re up a couple of goals. The Sault is a good team. They’re not going to quit. We weathered the storm and at the end of the day we got it done. It’s a matter of taking a deep breath and not thinking the world is caving in. We still had a two goal lead. Our goaltender has been solid.”

The Greyhounds will wrap up their East Division swing on Sunday afternoon in the nation’s capital when they take on the Ottawa 67’s. The Frontenacs next action is also on Sunday when they face division-rival Oshawa.