Special teams certainly came through for the Soo Greyhounds on Friday night.
Riding a three-goal performance on the man advantage, the Greyhounds picked up a 4-2 Ontario Hockey League victory over the Owen Sound Attack Friday at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
The Greyhounds finished the night 3-for-9 on the power play and also got a shorthanded late in the second period in the game.
“Special teams and goaltending were the difference tonight,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said.
The power play success included a lengthy two-man advantage in the second period, the Greyhounds didn’t capitalize on the initial power play but eventually scored after the first penalty expired to take a 3-1 lead at the time.
“The biggest thing about power plays is you want to create momentum for your team, and you don’t want to lose momentum,” Dean said. “In the 5-on-3, we did create some chances and we didn’t get that lull on the bench. They kept going after it, stuck to the game plan and got rewarded.”
“(Discipline) has got to be better,” said Owen Sound assistant coach Jordan Hill, who is filling in with fellow assistant Joey Hishon in running the Attack bench while head coach Alan Letang is away with the Canadian National Junior Team.
“I didn’t like a lot of the calls tonight, not just for our mistakes taking the penalties (but) the non-calls,” Hill also said. “We’re not helping ourselves and the refs aren’t going to help us. We have to find a way to be way more discipline as a team.”
Hill called the discipline “a big reason why we lost tonight.”
Dean also said he “liked the way we competed” in the game.
“Either team could have won that hockey game,” Dean also said.
Overage goaltender Bailey Brkin was solid for the Greyhounds, stopping 35 shots, including 16 in the third period.
When asked if it was Brkin’s best game since joining the team, Dean agreed.
“He had good poise,” Dean said of the netminder.
“We gave up a lot of grade A chances,” Dean said. “We gave up some chances off the rush specifically which, for a goalie, is very difficult.
“We weren’t very good defending the rush tonight and that’s where Bailey really bailed us out,” Dean added.
The win stretches the Greyhounds winning streak to five games and gives the team a 9-3-1-0 record in its last 13 games.
“We’re learning how to win games,” Dean said. “We won a 2-1 game against a very important opponent (last weekend against Erie). We just won a special teams game with goaltending. We’ve won games where we got leads early. Our group is learning how to win.”
Zack Trott paced the Greyhounds with two goals and an assist while Cole MacKay had a goal and an assist.
Joe Carroll had the shorthanded marker for the Greyhounds.
Hill called the goal “devastating.”
“You’re going into the third period down 3-1 and as bad as the game has gone special team-wise, you can still see that you’re in a hockey game,” Hill said. “It’s a devastating goal. We somewhat rallied and found a way to get some energy and get some pressure on them but it was too little, too late.”
Sam Sedley and Barret Kirwin scored for the Attack.
Goaltender Mack Guzda stopped 28 shots.
The Greyhounds improve to 15-15-2-0 heading into action on Sunday afternoon at home against the Erie Otters. Puck drop at the GFL Memorial Gardens is set for 2:07 p.m.
The win allows the Greyhounds to move one point ahead of the Attack in the OHL’s Western Conference standings as the Attack fall to 13-12-3-2.
In other action around the OHL on Friday night, in Flint, Cole Coskey scored at 19:22 of the third period to give the Saginaw Spirit a 5-4 win over the Flint Firebirds. Coskey, Cole Perfetti, and Damien Giroux had a goal and an assist each for Saginaw. Brennan Othmann had a goal and two assists for Flint.
In Kingston, Dawson Baker had a pair of goals as the Kingston Frontenacs beat the Barrie Colts 6-3. Christian Propp made 40 saves. Jason Willms had a goal and two assists for Barrie.
In Mississauga, three unanswered goals in the third period lifted the Mississauga Steelheads to a 4-2 win over the North Bay Battalion. Keean Washkurak had two goals and an assist for the Steelheads.
In Sudbury, Kurtis Henry had two goals and an assist as the Erie Otters beat the Sudbury Wolves 7-4. Connor Lockhart assisted on three goals for the Otters. MacAuley Carson had a goal and two assists for Sudbury.
In Guelph, Pavel Gogolev had a pair of goals as the Guelph Storm beat the Windsor Spitfires 6-3. Owen Bennett made 35 saves for the Storm.
In Kitchener, Donovan Sebrango had a goal and two assists as the Kitchener Rangers beat the Hamilton Bulldogs 9-6. Logan Morrison scored three times for Hamilton.
In London, Ethan Langevin stopped 35 shots as the Sarnia Sting beat the London Knights 5-3. Eric Hjorth had a goal and an assist for the Sting.
In Oshawa, a goal by Mason McTavish at 16:05 of the third period held up as the game winner as the Peterborough Petes beat the Oshawa Generals 3-2. McTavish finished the night with a pair of goals. Goaltender Hunter Jones made 34 saves for the Petes.
In other news around the OHL on Friday, Niagara IceDogs goaltender Tucker Tynan is expected to make a full recovery after suffering a severe cut in a game against the London Knights on Thursday night.
Tynan was cut by a skate after a Knights player collided with him in the crease.
The 17-year-old was treated by trainers and paramedics at the arena before being taken to hospital where he underwent surgery and was in stable condition.
The OHL postponed the game between the Knights and IceDogs and announced on Friday that Niagara’s games this weekend against Peterborough and Ottawa would also be postponed to allow the IceDogs players “to cope and access resources for support.”
The league also said that Tynan was expected to make a full recovery.