Return home not a happy one for Greyhounds (video, 8 photos)

“It looked like we wanted it really easy tonight.”

That from Soo Greyhounds coach John Dean following a loss on home ice on Friday night.

In a game in which they outshot their opponent by a 45-25 margin, the Greyhounds dropped a 3-0 Ontario Hockey League decision to the Sarnia Sting Friday at the GFL Memorial Gardens.

“It was clearly a group that wanted things easy tonight and Sarnia’s definitely not going to give it to you easy,” Dean also said. “They played a great game tonight.”

Dean added that a strong start to the game by the Sting, which saw the visitors outshooting the Greyhounds by a 7-1 margin early, was tough to rebound from.

“That start by them was fantastic,” Dean said. “They were ready to play and clearly we weren’t and the rest of the game carried out that way.”

Goaltender Benjamin Gaudreau was strong in goal for the Sting, stopping 45 shots en route to the shutout.

The 19-year-old was praised by Sting coach Alan Letang following the game.

“He was dialed right in, and he was seeing the puck clearly,” Letang said. “He’s so calm in the net. He was square all night long. He would send a puck to the corner and in about a half-second, he was back on his feet. When goalies get tired, they tend to stay down on their knee a little bit more to get their breath.”

“He was fantastic,” Dean said. “He’s an unbelievable goalie and he played great, but we didn’t play a good game.”

“The storyline to me is not that we created enough chances,” Dean also said. “Sarnia played a better game than us. They played a more disciplined game than us. They caught us off guard at the start of the game.”

The Greyhounds, who entered the game with the top power play in the league, went 0-for-5 on the man advantage on Friday night.

“The power play always produces chances and they had lots of chances to score tonight and unfortunately they didn’t finish, but it goes back to we can’t always rely on special teams to bail us out of games,” Dean said. “We have to start producing five-on-five.”

Sarnia opened the scoring 4:02 into the game when Nolan Dann scored on a rebound after Greyhounds goaltender Tucker Tynan stopped the initial point shot on the play from Nolan Dillingham.

The Greyhounds had an opportunity late in the period to tie the game when, with Dillingham already in the penalty box, Sarnia’s Chandler Romeo took a major penalty for checking to the head following a hit on Greyhounds defenceman Ryan O’Rourke.

The Greyhounds couldn’t capitalize on the 5-on-3 or the extended power play on the major penalty, which was cut short by a pair of Sault penalties as well.

The Sting took a 2-0 lead in the second period when defenceman Ethan Ritchie skated into the right circle and beat Tynan hit at 3:59.

Dann picked up his second of the night at 4:15 of the third period when he took a pass from Ty Voit in stride, beat Sault defenceman Kirill Kudryavtsev to the outside, cut in and slid a backhand past Tynan to make it 3-0.

Tynan made 22 saves for the Greyhounds.

Voit had a pair of assists for the Sting in the victory.

The loss drops the Greyhounds record to 24-13-4-1.

The Greyhounds sit in second in the OHL’s West Division as a result of Friday’s loss as the Flint Firebirds battled back to pick up a 5-4 overtime win against the Guelph Storm in Guelph.

Sarnia improves to 16-17-3-1 as the team continues to battle the Kitchener Rangers and Saginaw Spirit for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The win by Sarnia helps the team maintain pace with the Rangers, who also won on Friday night.

Friday’s win sees Sarnia’s record on the road improve to 11-6-1-0, compared to a 5-11-2-1 record at home.

“We come with a little more focus,” Letang said of playing on the road. “We don’t have the distraction of home. We’re a lot simpler. We don’t make the cute little plays into the middle. We seem to have more jump on the road.”

The two teams conclude the weekend set on Saturday night at the GFL Memorial Gardens in a 7:07 p.m. puck drop at the GFL Memorial Gardens.

Though he returned from the hit he took early on, O’Rourke didn’t play the third period for the Greyhounds in Friday’s loss.

Dean said following the game that O’Rourke wasn’t feeling well when returning to the dressing room for the second intermission.