Mistakes prove costly in Greyhounds, Knights matchup (video)

Mistakes proved costly for the Soo Greyhounds on Friday night.

The Greyhounds surrendered four goals in the second period of what turned into an 8-5 Ontario Hockey League loss on the road against the London Knights.

The game brought with it different outlooks for the Greyhounds – disappointment in falling behind against a London team that is among the OHL’s best but the positive of battling back in the face of a pair of deficits to make the game close and give themselves an opportunity in the game.

The key stretch was the second period in which the Knights scored four times to take a 5-1 lead over the visitors.

“In the first five minutes of the second, we looked like we were on our heels quite a bit,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said. “It was probably a bit of a rollover from the first where we could have executed a little more with the puck and been a little more poised with the puck.”

“There were two or three big mistakes in the second period that really cost is,” Dean said. “London is a good team and the were carrying the play, but goals two, three, and four are mistakes that we want back.”

“Against these top teams, you have to be battling for all three periods,” added veteran forward Rory Kerins. “In the second period, we let it slip.”

“The positive is that we leave that game thinking that we can play with those guys and beat those guys,” Kerins added.

The Greyhounds battled back on a pair of occasions to make the game close after the Knights looked to take a stranglehold on the game.

“This team scraps,” Dean said. “This team believes that they always have a chance to win. The bench was very strong, a lot of guys saying, ‘There’s still a lot of opportunity here, a lot of game left.’”

“That’s what happens when you play good teams like that,” defenceman Jack Thompson added. “You make mistakes, and they capitalize. Against a team like that, you have to really tighten up and try to limit their chances as much as possible.”

Thompson said the Greyhounds late push is something to build on as the regular season winds down.

“It’s big for the rest of the year and going into the playoffs as well,” Thompson said. “Not giving up and keeping it going, even if we’re down by four, we have to push back. It helps us to know that we can compete against those guys.”

On a pair of occasions in the game, the Knights strung together offensive outbursts that proved to be costly as well for the Greyhounds.

With a 2-1 lead in the second period, the Knights proceeded to score three timed in a stretch of 3:18 before scoring twice in a span of 42 seconds in the third after the Greyhounds had cut the Knights lead at the time to 5-3.

“It’s deflating for sure,” Dean said. “We wanted to be in a spot where we could pull our goaltender to try to tie it up and for us to do that twice after those two tough stretches is impressive by the group.”

The Greyhounds opened the scoring as Thompson cut through the clot and into the right faceoff circle, beating a London defender to the outside before beating London goaltender Brett Brochu low stick side at 13:51.

The Knights got on the board at 16:55 when Liam Gilmartin took a pass from Antonio Stranges, after a defensive zone turnover by the Greyhounds and cut through the slot. He proceeded to beat Greyhounds goaltender Tucker Tynan with a backhand from the right side of the slot.

Stranges gave the Knights the lead at 2:08 of the second period when he beat Tynan with a sharp-angle shot from the right corner. After getting the puck from Landon Sim, Stranges banked the puck in off Tynan to make it 2-1 London.

Brody Crane made it 3-1 Knights at 12:37 when he jumped on a loose puck in the slot and beat Tynan to extend the lead.

Gilmartin got his second of the night just 1:33 later when he deflected a point shot by Ethan MacKinnon past Tynan and capped off the hat trick at 15:55 when he beat Rob Calisti to the outside on the left wing before beating Tynan 5-hole.

Bryce McConnell-Barker cut into the London lead late in the period when he beat Brochu from the left wing through some traffic to make it 5-2 through 40 minutes,

The Greyhounds would cut the London lead to 5-3 early in the third period when Thompson pinched in on the power play and took a pass from Calisti before beating Brochu at 3:19.

Stranges picked up his second goal of the night at 7:58 when he tried to feed Landon Sim going to the net but the pass deflects past Tynan off a Greyhound player to make it 6-3.

Just 42 seconds later, Gerard Keane made it 7-3, ending Tynan’s night for the Greyhounds. Keane took a pass in the slot from Gilmartin and beat Tynan high glove.

The Greyhounds made things close as Rory Kerins scored a pair of power play goals just over three minutes apart to make it 7-5.

Kerins made it 7-4 when he found himself in the left circle and beat Brochu high short side after taking a pass from Kalvyn Watson below the goalline.

He would make it 7-5 at 14:19 when he looked to hit Watson at the edge of the crease with a pass from the left circle. The pass would deflect past Brochu off a London player.

Luke Evangelista made it 8-5 with an empty net goal with 2:09 to go when Cam Baber beat a Greyhounds player to the puck on an icing call and hit Evangelista with a pass in the slot.

Tynan stopped 22 of 29 shots for the Greyhounds before being pulled.

Schenkel stopped all four shots he faced the rest of the way.

Thompson had a three-point night for the Greyhounds, picking up an assist in addition to a pair of goals.

Calisti had a pair of assists for the Greyhounds.

Brochu stopped 24 shots for the Knights.

Gilmartin picked up a pair of assists for the Knights in addition to his three-goal performance offensively.

Stranges had two goals and two assists while Evangelista had a goal and a pair of helpers.

Sim, Isaiah George and Sean McGurn also had a pair of assists each for London.

With the loss, the Greyhounds record falls to 26-15-4-1. The team sits one point behind the Flint Firebirds for top spot in the OHL’s West Division after the Firebirds dropped a 5-4 overtime decision on the road to the Windsor Spitfires.

The win pulls the Spitfires to within five points of the Greyhounds for second in the division with five games in hand.

The Knights improve to 27-12-1-0 with the victory.

The Greyhounds are scheduled to return to action on Saturday night against the Owen Sound Attack.

Defenceman Ryan O’Rourke, who was injured last weekend in a game against the Sarnia Sting, did not travel with the team this weekend.

Notes: The OHL announced on Friday that the regular season has been extended and will now run until April 17.

The Greyhounds schedule has seen some adjustments as well because of the change. The makeup game between the Greyhounds and Sudbury Wolves, which was originally rescheduled to be played on March 1 at the GFL Memorial Gardens, will now be played on April 9.

The Dec. 10, 2021 game between the Greyhounds and Wolves, which was postponed a second time, is now scheduled for April 8 in Sudbury.

A weekend set between the Greyhounds and Flint Firebirds, originally scheduled for Jan. 21 and 22, will now be played on the final weekend of the regular season. The games are now scheduled for April; 15 and 16 in Flint.