Anger? Check.
Frustration? Definitely.
Disappointment? That too.
The Soo Greyhounds dressing room went through a wave of emotions on Saturday night following a 6-5 overtime loss against the Erie Otters at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
The emotions come after the team blew a 4-0 lead and needed a goal by overage forward Mark Duarte just to get to overtime before falling to the Otters.
“It’s becoming a bad habit that we just fall apart,” said veteran defenceman Caeden Carlisle.
“To see how good we can be in the first half of the game and then there was a switch turned off and we fell apart,” Carlisle added.
Duarte spoke of how the Greyhounds “stopped playing the brand we played in the first two periods.”
That style was “playing simple, getting pucks up and going north with them.”
Duarte added that staying on script is something the team has struggled with.
Greyhounds coach John Dean said the game came down to the Greyhounds inability to maintain their game for three periods.
“We don’t want to play 60 minutes, bottom line,” Dean said. “It’s ridiculous. All we ask is for the guys to go north with the puck, play a very simple brand of hockey. We did it for 20 minutes.”
Dean called the third period of the loss “as bad a third period as you can play.”
“No puck management at all, guys making plays completely off script, losing battles, losing battles in overtime,” Dean added. “Erie deserved to win.”
Dean said the change in play was unnecessary after the team opened up the lead.
“There’s an opportunity to win a hockey game there and they make a decision to go the other way, there’s just no excuse for it,” Dean said.
“We changed our style of play for absolutely no reason,” Dean added.
Duarte said the recent stretch has been tough since a win over Sarnia last Sunday. Since then, the Greyhounds have dropped three straight.
“When we go out and beat a team like Sarnia and then go and lose the next game to Saginaw and give up a lead like this, it’s something where we’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror and say ‘What are we doing wrong?’”
“Each guy individually should have time to themselves and think about what they can do better and what they can do to help the team,” Duarte added.
With a road trip on the horizon, Dean said practice is going to be about competing leading into the foray on the road.
“We’re just going to compete this week,” Dean said. “They don’t pay attention to systems anyway, so we’re just going to compete.”
“It doesn’t matter what system you have in place if you’re not going to follow it,” Dean added.
In reference to Duarte, Dean called the veteran forward “an absolute monster and leader of this team.”
“If everyone could follow his lead, I don’t know how guys don’t follow his example,” Dean added. “If everyone would follow his example on a consistent basis, we wouldn’t even be talking about battling for a playoff spot.”
Erie coach Stan Butler credited his team with battling back in the final game of a long road trip.
“I was proud of the kids,” Butler said.
“Once we got a little momentum, our kids started to realize that we could still get back into the game,” Butler said, adding that the Greyhounds were “dominant” in the first period.
Butler said coming back in the game showed a lot of character in his team.
“It’s easy to quit,” Butler said. “It shows a lot of character when you keep battling in the game. I said to them between the second and the third period, ‘We in a game here. Twenty minutes is a long time. Let’s just go out and play the way we need to and see where we go.’”
The Greyhounds opened the scoring as Julian Fantino banked the puck in off Erie goaltender Kyle Downey just to the right of the Erie goal after the Otters netminder stopped Christopher Brown initially at 7:39.
Jordan D’Intino made it a 2-0 game with just over five minutes to go in the period when he beat Downey with a shot from near the top of the right circle 5-hole.
With 2:21 to go in the period, Carlisle extended the lead to 3-0. The veteran defenceman took a pass in the slot at the trailer on the play from Brenden Sirizzotti and beat Downey glove side.
The Greyhounds took a 4-0 lead with the teams playing 4-on-4 just under seven minutes into the second period. Justin Cloutier took a short pass at the Erie blueline from Duarte and skated in on a partial break, beating Downey on a deke stick side.
Erie got on the board at 8:06 when Artyom Kulakov beat Greyhounds starter Charlie Schenkel with a shot from the point that handcuffed the Sault netminder.
Erie then cut the lead to 4-2 when Carey Terrance scored on a power play at 12:54. With the Otters on a 5-on-3, Terrance scored after a scramble in the slot saw Schenkel make a save and another shot get blocked during a scramble before Terrance capitalized.
The Otters made it a one-goal game in the third period when Noah Sedore took a pass in the slot from Pano Fimis. Sedore couldn’t get the shot off initially with his stick tied up by Sault defenceman Ryan Thompson. Sedore eventually got the shot off and beat Schenkel high glove side.
Erie tied the game at four on a delayed penalty at 10:36. Malcolm Spence got the puck in the left circle and beat Schenkel high short side.
The Otters proceeded to take a 5-4 lead when Dylan Edwards scored on a rebound in close after Schenkel stopped Spencer Sova from the right circle initially at 12:01.
With 3:02 to go, Schenkel came out for the extra attacker with the faceoff in the Erie zone. Bryce McConnell-Barker won the faceoff back to Duarte, who proceeded to beat Downey through some traffic to tie the game at five.
Spencer Sova gave the Otters the win just under two minutes into overtime when he beat Schenkel with a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle high glove side.
Duarte and Carlisle had a goal and an assist each for the Greyhounds while McConnell-Barker assisted on a pair of goals in the loss.
Schenkel made 26 saves.
Kulakov and Spence paced the Otters with a goal and an assist each,
Fimis assisted on a pair of goals.
Downey stopped 24 shots.
Next up for the Greyhound is the opening game of a three-game road trip that begins on Thursday night in St. Catharines with a game against the Niagara IceDogs. The trip will also take the team to Guelph on Friday and Kitchener next Sunday afternoon.
Saturday’s result drops the Greyhounds record to 16-24-9-5 on the season.
The team sits five points behind the Rangers for the final playoff spot in the OHL’s Western Conference after the Rangers dropped a 6-1 decision in Flint Saturday to the Firebirds. The Rangers have a pair of games in hand on the Greyhounds.
Erie improves to 18-29-1-4 with the win and trails the Greyhounds by five points in the standings and also has a pair of games in hand on the Sault.