Battle of Western Conference elite goes to the dogs

With the Ontario Hockey League’s top four Western Conference teams distancing themselves from the pack, two of them saw themselves in action Friday night in a contest that had a little bit of everything.

For the Soo Greyhounds, the game saw a clutch performance from veteran forward Gavin Hayes and netminder Charlie Schenkel as the team skated to a 4-2 win over the Kitchener Rangers at the GFL Memorial Gardens.

After a quiet opening period, Schenkel was busy in the second stanza, turning aside all 15 shots he faced as the Greyhounds built a 2-0 lead in the game.

“In the second period, I think we thought it might be an easy night and we got real loose and we basically traded chances back and forth and Charlie was unbelievable,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said of the Sault netminder.

Pleased with the game as a whole, Schenkel called facing a lot of chances “fun.”

“It was a lot of fun,” Schenkel said of the second period. “I’m a goalie. I love stopping the puck.”

“When you’re getting lots of shots, it’s fun,” Schenkel added. “I’m just trying to give my team the best chance of winning.”

Dean and Schenkel also talked about the atmosphere in the rink during the game.

“The crowd in general was electric,” Dean said. “Our kids fed off the crowd on so many different occasions. What I loved is (that) they really tried to pick us up when we were struggling. That’s so huge for a hometown team. We’ve been really hard on the guys to put a good product on the ice for the Soo Greyhound faithful to be proud of. I know it wasn’t perfection tonight, but our boys worked their butts off for all the fans.”

Among the cheering were numerous chants during the second period directed favourably at Schenkel.

“I heard a little bit, it’s pretty cool,” Schenkel said of the crowd getting behind him in the second period.

Friday’s game marked the return to the lineup for Greyhounds captain Bryce McConnell-Barker after missing 14 games due to an injury suffered on Dec. 10 against the London Knights.

“He played an extremely detailed game,” Dean said. “He played with an exceptional amount of energy. You can already see him and Gavin starting to read off each other in a really positive way.”

“I’m just happy to see Bryce McConnell-Barker back smiling and playing the game he loves,” Dean added.

The Rangers entered Friday’s game with a shortened lineup due to injuries as five veterans were out of the lineup due to various reasons.

The team played the game minus defencemen Hunter Brzustewicz (personal), Matthew Andonovski (suspension), Filip Mesar (injury), Trent Swick (injury), and Mitchell Martin (injury). Rookie defenceman Cameron Reid was also out of the lineup due to injury.

Kitchener coach Jussi Ahokas said it was “like putting money in the bank” for the young group.

“Our young group played really well,” Ahokas said. “We’re missing from our top two lines, six players and our guys fought really well. Some of the young guys played really well.

Ahokas said the game came down to some critical mistakes for the Rangers.

“Some big individual mistakes were how they scored,” Ahokas said.

In speaking about the game-winning goal in the game by Hayes, Ahokas spoke of it being a defendable play.

“That’s a controlled break out for them,” Ahokas said. “It’s a no-brainer how you should defend that.”

Ahokas added that not scoring on the power play was also tough for the Rangers.

After the teams skated through a scoreless opening period, the Greyhounds opened the scoring with 3:14 to go in the period. 

Marco Mignosa got the puck in close and beat Kitchener goaltender Jackson Parsons for his 20th goal of the season.

The Greyhounds made it a 2-0 game 1:32 later as Matthew Virgilio took a pass in the slot from Christopher Brown and beat Parsons through traffic.

Kitchener got on the board in the third period when Matthew Sop grabbed a turnover in the slot and proceeded to skate in and beat Schenkel at 9:58.

The Rangers then tied the game at 16:35 as Eduard Sale took a pass from Sop while going to the net and slipped a backhand past Schenkel.

Moments after the Rangers had a goal waved off due to a high stick, Gavin Hayes broke down the right wing on the next shift and beat Parsons high short side from the right circle with 1:46 to go in regulation time.

Hayes sealed the win with an empty net goal in the final minute.

“He’s very attentive to detail,” Dean said. “He’s got that ability to break a game open and win a game for you, but he’s so committed to everything else we’re doing.”

Kirill Kudryavtsev assisted on three goals for the Greyhounds in the win while Schenkel stopped 26 shots overall.

Sop had a goal and an assist for the Rangers.

Parsons stopped 24 shots.

With the win, the Greyhounds improve to 30-12-2-1 on the season and move two points ahead of the Saginaw Spirit for top spot in the OHL’s West Division. The Spirit, who were off on Friday night, return to action on Saturday at home against the Rangers and have two games in hand on the Greyhounds.

The Greyhounds also sit one point behind the London Knights for top spot in the Western Conference after gaining a single point on the Knights Friday. London had their 14-game winning streak snapped in a shootout loss to the Peterborough Petes. London has a game in hand on the Greyhounds and are slated to travel to Erie to take on the Otters on Saturday night.

The Rangers fall to 30-14-2-0 with Friday’s loss and are two points behind the Knights in the battle for top spot in the Midwest Division.

The Greyhounds return to action on Sunday afternoon at home against the Sarnia Sting.