It’s been a struggle offensively of late for the Soo Greyhounds.
A three-game road trip saw the Ontario Hockey League club score just three times while going 1-2 in the process after wrapping up the trip on Saturday night.
It was Saturday night that the Greyhounds dropped a 3-1 decision to the Owen Sound Attack at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre in Owen Sound to conclude the trip.
The loss came on the heels of a 3-0 setback in Kitchener on Friday night.
“Right now, we’re struggling with a little bit of confidence putting the puck in the back of the net,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said Saturday night.
As much as he felt the game could have gone either way, Dean said “I still don’t think we’re generating enough” when asked if he felt his team generated enough offensively to win Saturday’s contest.
“Not enough high-danger chances, that’s for sure,” Dean said. “It looks like we’re battling the puck a bit. We’re battling execution. We’re certainly not deadly in high-danger areas right now. That’s partially confidence, partially making sure we’re on the same page. Execution just has to be better.”
Gaining that confidence back is something Dean said will come with practice reps.
“You get confidence from your reps in practice and making sure you have diligent and intentional repetition in practice,” Dean said. “Do the best you can to replicate game-like situations in high-danger scoring areas. That’s the only way to get confidence as a player is repeat different opportunities in practice that you might see in a game.”
Owen Sound got on the board first in the opening period thanks to a goal from Sam McCue. The veteran forward got the puck in the neutral zone after a shot by the Greyhounds in the Attack zone was wide of the net and got out of the Owen Sound zone. McCue grabbed the puck and skated in on a partial break before beating Greyhounds goaltender Charlie Schenkel with a shot 5-hole at 13:25.
The teams skated through a scoreless second period before the Greyhounds tied the game in the third period.
Owen Allard skated the puck deep into the Owen Sound zone before it was poked off his stick by an Owen Sound defender. The loose puck went to Justin Cloutier following up the play and Cloutier proceeded to beat Owen Sound goaltender Matthew Koproski glove side at 7:19.
On the next shift, 1:17 later to be exact, Owen Sound took the lead again as Tristan Delisle grabbed a turnover in the slot and beat Schenkel stick side to make it a 2-1 game.
The Attack sealed the win with 56 seconds to go as Ben Cormier grabbed a loose puck down low, popped into the right faceoff circle, and beat Schenkel short side.
Schenkel made 31 saves for the Greyhounds in the loss.
“He probably makes some really big saves for us when he’s really on, but he was good for us tonight,” Dean said.
It was Schenkel’s first game action since Nov. 22 after the overage netminder missed time due to injury. Schenkel was on the bench for the Greyhounds during the opening two games of the road trip before getting into action Saturday.
At the other end, Koprowski stopped 29 shots for the Attack.
The Greyhounds now return home for a three-game homestand that opens Wednesday night with a game against the Sudbury Wolves.
The Greyhounds fall to 13-15-0-0 with the loss while Owen Sound improves to 8-16-2-3.