Losing in overtime is certainly weighing on them.
The Soo Greyhounds dropped their sixth overtime decision on Thursday night in a 5-4 Ontario Hockey League loss against the Saginaw Spirit at the Dow Event Center.
Were it not for a disengaged effort 24 hours earlier, the feeling of losing in overtime Thursday would have been a lot different.
“We laid an egg last night and then come in and compete today,” Soo Greyhounds coach John Dean said. “I saw 19 guys working their butts off and competing.”
Dean said that, had the team not struggled in Wednesday’s game in Flint “you would probably hear a different tune from me.”
“I liked how hard the guys worked (against Saginaw),” Dean said. “I’ll never fault a group that goes and puts the effort out there. It was a tough way to lose. It was a victory in terms of our guys understand the character and personality and style of play we need to be successful.”
Greyhounds captain Bryce McConnell-Barker added that the team showed an improvement over Wednesday’s loss.
“The first two periods were pretty good,” McConnell-Barker said. “In the third period, we got outplayed and that’s what led to us giving up the lead and losing.”
Dean admitted that he felt the team cost itself two points.
“Unfortunately, the narrative this year continues to be the last 10 minutes of the third period,” Dean said.
“We won the first, won the second and obviously we’ve got to be much better going into the third with the lead like that,” added forward Jordan D’Intino. “It can’t keep happening.”
“We were too passive and got away from our aggressive forecheck that was getting us paid in the first two periods,” D’Intino added.
Giving up the lead in the third period, Dean said it came down to “two really costly mistakes in the four-on-four.”
“If we take care of that four-on-four properly and clean that up, we probably leave here with two points,” Dean added.
Speaking with the Spirit television broadcast, Saginaw coach Chris Lazary said he felt his team had more than enough scoring chances in the game.
“I hate when coaches say, ‘You have to bare down’, but we have to bare down on some of our chances,” Lazary said.
Lazary also credited the Greyhounds following the game.
“They’re in a year where they’re in the down part of the cycle, but they play hard,” Lazary said. “They’re in every game.”
“If they make (the playoffs as) the eight seed or the seven seed and you have to play them in the playoffs, that’s not an easy game,” Lazary added.
Landen Hookey opened the scoring midway through the opening period when he scored from the left circle after taking a pass from Kalvyn Watson at 10:06.
The visitors took a 2-0 lead at 14:01 when D’Intino beat Saginaw goaltender Brett Fullerton stick side after beating three Saginaw players in the slot to get to the net.
Saginaw got on the board 43 seconds later when Calem Mangone redirected a pass in the slot from Mitchell Smith past Greyhounds goaltender Samuel Ivanov.
Watson made it a 3-1 game early in the second period when he grabbed a turnover in the slot and beat Fullerton stick side at 3:19.
After not taking advantage of a lengthy 5-on-3 in the second period, the Spirit tied the game with a pair of quick goals in the third.
Michael Misa made it a 3-2 game at 4:35 when he redirected a back-door pass from Roberto Mancini in the right faceoff circle past Ivanov.
Just 54 seconds later, Hunter Height tied the game when he beat Ivanov high stick side from the high slot.
Saginaw took a 4-3 when Luke McNamara redirected a pass from Theo Hill past Ivanov on a give-and-go with 4:41 to go in regulation time.
Andrew Gibson pulled the Greyhounds back on even terms at 16:15 when he beat Fullerton high glove side after D’Intino sent the puck through the slot to the rookie blueliner at the top of the right faceoff circle.
Pavel Mintyukov gave the Spirt the win at 3:13 of overtime when he beat Ivanov stick side on a 2-on-1 after taking a pass from Michael Misa.
Gibson, Watson, and D’Intino had a goal and an assist each offensively for the Greyhounds while McConnell-Barker assisted on a pair of goals.
Ivanov made 32 saves in the loss.
“He gave us a chance to win,” Dean said of Ivanov. “That team over there generates a lot of opportunities.”
Mintyukov and Misa had a goal and two assists each to pace the Spirit offensively. Smith also had a pair of helpers.
Fullerton made 21 saves for Saginaw.
The Greyhounds return to action on Saturday afternoon at home when the team hosts the Sudbury Wolves in a 2:07 p.m. puck drop at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
Saginaw improves to 21-9-2-0 with the win and moves one point ahead of the London Knights for top spot in the OHL’s Western Conference. The Knights have a pair of games in hand on the Spirit.
For the Greyhounds, Thursday’s loss drops their record to 10-13-6-4. Getting the single point in the game pulls the team into a tie with the Guelph Storm for eighth in the Western Conference and back to within one point of the seventh-seeded Kitchener Rangers, though the Rangers have four games in hand on both the Greyhounds and Storm.
Guelph is scheduled to host Windsor on Friday night while the Rangers host Peterborough and all three teams are in action on Saturday.
On the injury front for the Greyhounds, Connor Toms missed Thursday’s game against the Spirit. The sophomore defenceman left Wednesday’s loss against Flint and did not return