Strong start not enough in road trip opener for Greyhounds (video)

It was a disappointing opening to a three-game road trip.

The Soo Greyhounds surrendered four power play goals in a loss to the Sarnia Sting in Ontario Hockey League action Friday at Progressive Auto Sales Arena in Sarnia.

An overtime goal by Marko Sikic was the difference as the Sting picked up a 6-5 win over the Greyhounds Friday night in Sarnia.

Sikic scored on a rebound after Greyhounds goaltender Tucker Tynan stopped a shot by defenceman Ethan Ritchie 1:06 into the extra frame.

The loss came after the Greyhounds jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening period and carried the play to the Sting into the second period.

“That’s a huge game for us,” said veteran forward Kalvyn Watson. “It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t get the two points, especially after the way that we started dominating them in the game right off the start. It slowly slipped away from us.”

Watson said there was a momentum shift in the second period, after the Sting battled back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game.

“We dominated the first half (of the game),” Watson said. “There was definitely a momentum shift, and we have to find a way to keep our feet under us and keep moving forward.”

Greyhounds coach John Dean referred to it as a trend for the team.

“Our starts have been really strong, and we get away from the details, the discipline, and the compete that created the success fur us that we think things are going to be easy,” Dean said. “Then we slowly dissipate, especially in that second period. It’s disappointing to see the guys not stick to what’s working and we looked like we were cheating a bit in the second period there for sure.”

The Sting were perfect on the man advantage in the game, going 4-for-4.

With the Greyhounds penalty kill showing an improvement since Christmas, Dean called Friday’s performance “one of those nights.”

“We’ve competed so hard on it and climbed into the top half of the league here,” Dean said. “You’re going to have nights like that.”

Dean added that discipline was an issue for the team in the game, citing the number of stick penalties the team took in the game.

The Greyhounds opened the scoring early on when Cole MacKay took a pass from Rory Kerins at the Sarnia blueline, skated into the right faceoff circle and beat Sarnia starter Anson Thornton glove side at 3:19.

Just 56 seconds later, Marco Mignosa made it 2-0 Greyhounds when he scored on a rebound from the top of the crease after Thornton made the initial stop on Kalvyn Watson on the play.

Sarnia got on the board at 13:14 when Ritchie took a pass in the left circle from Nolan Burke and beat Greyhounds starter Tucker Tynan through traffic to cut the Greyhounds lead to 2-1.

Watson made it 3-1 Greyhounds 1:15 into the second period when he redirected a pass in close from Ryan O’Rourke in the left faceoff circle.

The lead got cut back down to one goal at 3:16 when Ritchie picked up his second goal of the night.

After a faceoff win in the Greyhounds zone to start a power play, Ritchie took a pass in the slot from Sikic and beat Tynan stick side just three seconds into a man advantage.

The Sting tied the game at three midway through the period when Zack Filak beat Tynan from the slot while falling to the ice in a battle with Greyhounds defenceman Jack Thompson on the power play.

Jordan D’Intino gave the Greyhounds a 4-3 lead at 4:39 of the third period when he scored on a rebound after Owen Allard’s initial shot on the play was stopped by Thornton.

Sarnia tied the game at four when Ty Voit took a pass in the left circle from Sikic on the power play at 6:04. Sikic got the puck after Tynan initially stopped Ritchie from the point and the rebound went to Sikic in the right circle.

Watson made it 5-4 Greyhounds when he deflected a point shot by Kirill Kudryavtsev past Thornton at 8:50.

The Sting tied the game once again when Filak got his second of the night on a deflection of a point shot by Alexis Daviault. The goal came at 11:09 on the power play.

Watson finished the night with two goals and an assist while Kerins assisted on a pair of goals for the Greyhounds.

Mignosa had a goal and an assist for the Sault.

Tynan made 24 saves.

Ritchie finished the night with four points for the Sting, scoring twice and assisting on two more goals Sikic also had four points for Sarnia with a goal and three assists.

Theo Hill also assisted on three goals.

Thornton stopped 33 Sault shots.

With the loss, the Greyhounds record falls to 28-16-6-1. The overtime loss, combined with a win by the Flint Firebirds over Erie, means the Greyhounds now trail Flint by five points for top spot in the OHL’s West Division.

The Windsor Spitfires, who have games in hand on the Greyhounds, and trailed the team by three points for second in the division, lost to London on Friday.

The win improves Sarnia’s record to 21-22-3-1 as the team battles for playoff positioning in the OHL’s Western Conference.

The Greyhounds wrap up the weekend Saturday night on the road in Windsor against the Spitfires.

The team will be in Sudbury Wednesday to face the Wolves before returning home for a pair of games next weekend.

Tyler Savard returned to the lineup for the Greyhounds against the Sting after missing a game last weekend due to injury.

Greyhounds general manager Kyle Raftis spoke on Friday about the effect that the news out of Russia and Ukraine has on defenceman Kirill Kudryavtsev, who was born in Russia, and goaltender Samuel Ivanov, whose family history traces back to Russia.

“In both cases, it’s a little bit traumatic for them,” Raftis said. “They’re saying all the right things and we want to make sure we have the right people they can talk to if they need to. It’s a tough situation for an adult to understand and go through, let alone someone who is thousands of miles from home with the time changes for talking to people.”

The full story can be found here.

In other news, a trio of Greyhounds inked pro contracts this week.

Kerins, a 6th round pick of the Calgary Flames in the 2020 NHL draft, signed an entry level contract with the NHL club while Kartye signed a free agent entry level deal with the Seattle Kraken.

Calisti was the third member of the team to sign, inking an American Hockey League deal with he Charlotte Checkers, the top farm team of the NHL’s Florida Panthers.