Tough start catches up to Greyhounds

A tough start and Owen Tippett were the difference.

Tippett scored a natural hat trick in the opening period to help the Mississauga Steelheads beat the Soo Greyhounds 4-3 in a shootout on Thursday night at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, ending the Greyhounds 23-game winning streak in the process.

Tippett scored a shootout goal as well to seal the Steelheads victory after Mathieu Foget opened the scoring in the shootout.

“We lost it in the first period,” said Greyhounds forward Jack Kopacka. 

“We can't just say we’re going to turn it on when we want,” Kopacka added. “We have to come to play for a full 60 minutes. We didn’t do that tonight and that’s why we lost.”

“It’s tough when you start like that,” said Greyhounds forward Morgan Frost. “We gave them too many high-end scoring chances and they’re a team that’s going to capitalize on them.”

The Steelheads scored a pair of power play goals in the quick start to the game.

“A couple of the penalties we took were unnecessary and they scored on both of them and that was probably the difference in the game,” said Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister. 

“To put yourself in that position where you’re down three goals, it’s difficult to get yourself back in the game,” Bannister added.

Tyler Johnson got the start in goal for the Greyhounds, stopping 10 of 13 shots before Matthew Villalta came in for the final 40 minutes.

Villalta would stop all 15 shots he faced the rest of the way.

“It was more to try to inject some life into the team,” Bannister said of the goaltending change. 

Bannister said Villalta would get the start on Friday night a likely start Sunday’s road trip finale as well.

Frost, Keeghan Howdeshell and Noah Carroll scored for the Greyhounds while Barrett Hayton picked up a pair of assists.

In addition to scoring the shootout winner, Foget had a pair of assists in the contest, setting up Tippett’s first two goals. 

Sophomore goaltender Jacob Ingham made 31 saves for the Steelheads and stopped both Greyhounds shooters he faced in the shootout.

The loss is the first for the Greyhounds since dropping a 6-3 decision on the road in Sarnia against the Sting, dropping the Greyhounds record to 32-3-2-1 on the season.

“It obviously would have been nice to keep the streak (going) but we’ve just got to come back stronger (on Friday) and remember how (the loss) felt, because it’s been a while,” Kopacka said.

The Greyhounds return to action on Friday night in Oshawa against the Generals before wrapping up the weekend on Sunday afternoon in Guelph against the Storm.

“That will be the challenge for the guys is to respond (to the loss) in the right way and to get ourselves focused on winning a hockey game tomorrow,” Bannister said. “Now we don’t have to worry about protecting a streak here. It’s more about getting back to winning hockey games.”

The Steelheads improve to 16-22-0-1 with the victory.

Notes: Earlier this week, three Greyhounds were honoured by the OHL as the league announced its performers of the month for December. 

Villalta was named the OHL’s top goaltender for December after posting a 7-0-0-0 record, a 2.25 goals against average and a 0.923 save percentage in December.

Morgan Frost was named player of the month after scoring eight goals and 20 points in 10 games in December.

Defenceman Rasmus Sandin was named the rookie of the month. The smooth-skating Swedish blueliner scored two goals and nine points in 11 December games.

It’s been a busy week on the trade front as the league moves closer to the Jan. 10 OHL trade deadline.

The Kingston Frontenacs have made waves by acquiring Sean Day and Gabe Vilardi from Windsor on Monday in exchange for rookie Cody Morgan and eight draft picks, three of which are conditional. 

The Frontenacs also acquired Cliff Pu from the London Knights this week in exchange for Nathan Dunkley and a pair of draft picks.

Thursday’s schedule saw four other games.

In St. Catharines, Danial Singer had a pair of goals as the Niagara IceDogs doubled up the Guelph Storm 6-3. Kirill Maksimov added a goal and an assist for Niagara.

In North Bay, shootout goals by Matt Brassard and Kyle MacLean were the difference as the Oshawa Generals beat the North Bay Battalion 6-5. Domenico Commisso had a goal and two assists in regulation time for the Generals.

In Peterborough, Michael DiPietro made 32 saves as the Windsor Spitfires beat the Peterborough Petes 2-1. Jake Smith’s goal at 15:57 of the third period was the game-winner.

In Barrie, Jordan Kooy made 40 saves as the London Knights beat the Barrie Colts 5-3. Sam Miletic and Alec Regula had a goal and two assists each offensively for the Knights.