VIDEO: Greyhounds look to 'find an identity' as OHL regular season winds down

Consistency goes a long way in the Ontario Hockey League and for the Soo Greyhounds, it’s been an issue in recent games.

A three-game homestand saw two different Greyhound teams, including a disappointing game on Sunday afternoon against the Owen Sound Attack.

After dropping a 3-2 decision to the Oshawa Generals on Friday night, the Greyhounds came away from the game feeling good, only to see that feeling change on Sunday, despite a 4-3 win over the Attack.

“Right now, we’re two different teams,” said Greyhounds Coach John Dean. “We play hard one night and then we make a decision the next night and don’t play close to as hard as we did against Oshawa and we end up in a tight game.”

“That’s no disrespect to Owen Sound, they played a very good game,” Dean added. “But we were up 3-1 and we made it a tight game. At the end of the day, you can’t change your style of play from opponent to opponent. You have to put your foot on the gas every single night.”

Dean also said he felt the Greyhounds were “lucky to get two points.”

“I’m happy with the two points but the bottom line is we have to become a more consistent team,” Dean also said. “And we’ve got six games to do it.”

Dean said having a tough schedule to finish the regular season that includes a game on the road in Sudbury, two games against Saginaw, and London is a good thing.

“We like playing in tough games and hopefully that’s a good sign for us leading into the playoffs,” Dean said.

The remainder of the regular season will be an opportunity to find what Dean called “an identity.”

“I’m anxious for our team to find an identity,” Dean said.

“We have to get back to what we do well and that’s move the puck quickly, manage the puck, possess the puck and be extremely dogged on the puck when we don’t have it,” Dean added.

Keeghan Howdeshell had a pair of goals for the Greyhounds while Morgan Frost picked up three assists.

Jordan Sambrook added a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds. Cullen McLean had the other Sault goal.

Goaltender Matthew Villalta made 26 saves.

For the Attack, Sunday’s result was one that was a positive despite the result.

“I really liked our effort today,” said Owen Sound Coach Alan Letang. “That was something we were stressing after our lack of effort in Sudbury (on Friday). Our response was very good today.”

As the trade deadline passed, the Attack made the decision to get younger and dealt off high-end assets like defenceman Markus Phillips and forward Nick Suzuki, for Letang, the hope is that the team will get more efforts like what he saw on Sunday against the Greyhounds.

“I’d like to see that effort on a more consistent basis,” Letang said. “The biggest thing for us is when we hit adversity in games, normally when we would go down 4-2, we would fold a little bit and try to push the pace or sell out to play offensively. We realize now, or at least today we did, that if you take care of your own zone, you’ll get opportunities to get that break.”

Jackson Doherty, Kaleb Pearson, and Sergey Popov completed the scoring for the Attack.

Goaltender Mack Guzda made 21 saves.

Greyhounds captain Barrett Hayton missed the game due to an injury suffered on Feb. 19 at home against Sarnia.

The veteran forward has missed six games and Dean said the 18-year-old remains out day-to-day and the team won’t rush him back into the lineup.

Rookie goaltender Ethan Taylor remains in the same position after being injured in Windsor on Feb. 21.

His status remains day-to-day.

The Greyhounds remain two points behind the Saginaw Spirit for top spot in the OHL’s West Division as the Spirit also won on Sunday.

The Greyhounds sit at 40-15-6-1 following Sunday’s win while the Attack, in a battle with Sarnia and Kitchener for positioning in the OHL’s Western Conference, fall to 28-28-4-2.

The Greyhounds return to action on Wednesday night on the road in Sudbury against the Wolves before returning home next weekend to host the Sarnia Sting on Saturday night and the Windsor Spitfires on Sunday afternoon.

In other action around the OHL on Sunday, in Saginaw, Brady Gilmour scored a pair of goals as Saginaw blanked Peterborough 8-0. Blade Jenkins assisted on three Saginaw goals. Goaltender Ivan Prosvetov made 27 saves for the shutout.

In Erie, a goal by Antonio Stranges at 7:50 of the third period was the game-winner as the London Knights beat the Erie Otters 3-1, Goaltender Jordan Kooy made 26 saves for the Knights. Cole Ceci made 34 saves for the Otters.

In Kitchener, Nick Suzuki had two goals and four assists as the Guelph Storm beat the Kitchener Rangers 8-4. Nate Schnarr added three goals and two assists for Guelph while Dmitri Samorukov assisted on three goals.

In St. Catharines, Sean Josling had two goals as the Sarnia Sting beat the Niagara IceDogs 6-5. Kelton Hatcher chipped in with a goal and an assist for the Sting. Jason Robertson had a goal and three assists for Niagara. Jack Studnicka chipped in with two goals and an assist for the IceDogs.

In North Bay, a pair of goals in the third period broke a 2-2 tie as the North Bay Battalion beat the Sudbury Wolves. 4-2. Battalion goaltender Christian Propp made 46 saves. Mitchell Russell had a goal and an assist for North Bay, which included the game-winning goal.

In Ottawa, Michael DiPietro made 22 saves as the Ottawa 67’s blanked the Mississauga Steelheads 3-0. Kody Clark, Tye Felhaber, and Graeme Clarke completed the scoring for Ottawa.

In Windsor, Billy Constantinou scored on the power play 57 seconds into overtime to give the Kingston Frontenacs a 4-3 win over the Windsor Spitfires. Matt Hotchkiss had a pair of goals and Nick Wong assisted on three goals for Kingston.

Results from Sunday’s other two games, both evening starts, will be added as the results become available.