Miller paces Greyhounds to high-scoring win (4 photos)

For overage forward David Miller, his return to the Ontario Hockey League team he started his career with is off to a good start.

After being held off the scoresheet in the season opener on Friday, Miller scored three times and assisted on another goal to help the Soo Greyhounds to an 8-5 victory over the Oshawa Generals Saturday night at the Essar Centre.

A pair of power play goals by Miller in the third period helped seal the win for the Greyhounds.

“It feels pretty good to produce like that,” Miller said. “The guys really helped me produce tonight. They were moving the puck well and we capitalized on the power play.”

Miller said the Greyhounds system suits his style of play and the opportunity to return to the city was a welcome one.

“The Soo feels like I’m coming back home,” Miller said. “I feel comfortable here.”

Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister credited the veteran forward.

“He competed really hard and obviously he got rewarded with the goals,” Bannister said. “He was hard in front of the net.”

Bobby MacIntyre added two goals and three assists while defenceman Conor Timmins assisted on four goals for the Greyhounds. Morgan Frost and Medric Mercier added a goal and an assist each to round out the Greyhounds scoring.

Bannister said complacency was an issue in the game and used a timeout with the result still in doubt in the third period to try to change that.

“We got very complacent and I thought the game was slipping away a little bit,” Bannister said of the timeout. “We were a little bit better. We have to learn how to protect the lead and be better five-on-five.”

“I was not happy with the way we were playing,” Bannister also said. “We were taking shortcuts. All five guys on the ice for all of those goals were cheating.”

One thing that did please Bannister was the Greyhounds start to the contest.

“We had a good start but in the first 10 minutes of the second period we fell asleep when things got easy,” Bannister said.

“One of our biggest issues last year was our starts,” Bannister said. “In the first two games our starts were really good.”

For Oshawa, discipline was an issue as the Greyhounds had 10 power plays in the game and scored four times.

“It doesn’t give you an opportunity to win on the road,” Oshawa Coach Bob Jones said. “We were up 3-2 in the second period and took a hitting from behind penalty. We make it 7-5, we’re on the power play and we take a penalty. We just continually shot ourselves in the foot all night with being very undisciplined.”

Both coaches said that with numerous players still away at NHL camps, the current players need to take advantage of the opportunity they have.

“There are other guys that have to rise up to the occasion that they probably won’t have when those boys come back,” Jones said. “It’s disappointing when you score five goals on the road, you should probably get a point.”

“There are guys getting ice time that they’re normally not going to get,” Jones also said. “It’s a learning process and the second game of the year. There are still some nerves in the young guys. We’ve got a lot of second-year guys that are veterans by status but not by play yet.”

“The guys have an opportunity and the opportunity showed me that some guys aren’t ready to play regularly in this league,” Bannister said.

Robbie Burt scored a pair of goals for the Generals while Joe Manchurek and Jack Studnicka had a goal and an assist each. Domenic Commisso also scored. Kyle Keyser got the start for Oshawa, stopping 24 shots before being pulled after the Greyhounds seventh goal. Barrett Mundell came in and stopped eight shots the rest of the way.

The Greyhounds return to action on Sept. 29 to start a three-game road trip in Windsor against the Spitfires. The trip also takes the team to London the following night to face the nights before wrapping up on Oct. 2 in Sarnia against the Sting.

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OTHER SCORES

In Flint, Garrett Forrest made 27 saves as the Flint Firebirds blanked the Owen Sound Attack 2-0. Nicholas Caamano and Ryan Moore had a goal and an assist each for the Firebirds. Bradley Van Schubert made 28 saves for the Attack.

In Hamilton, Kaden Fulcher made 33 saves while seven different players had goals as the Hamilton Bulldogs beat the Kingston Frontenacs 7-2. Matt Luff, Niki Petti and Ondrej Kachnya had a goal and an assist each while Connor Roberts and Connor Walters assisted on a pair of goals each for Hamilton. Fedor Gordeev, Brandon Saigeon, Matthew Strome and MacKenzie Entwistle also scored for the Bulldogs. Nathan Dunkley and Zack Dorval scored for Kingston.

In Saginaw, Kyle Rhodes’ goal at 19:30 of the second period was the eventual game-winner as the Guelph Storm held on to beat the Saginaw Spirit 2-1. Storm goaltender Liam Herbst made 40 saves while Jake Bricknell had the other Guelph goal. Marcus Crawford had the lone Saginaw goal.