It wasn’t a perfect night, but there was still a lot to like.
The Soo Greyhounds had a second-period lead erased, but a strong start and some timely scoring late helped the team to an 8-4 Ontario Hockey League victory for the Soo Greyhounds on Friday night at Sudbury Community Arena.
The win came on a night in which the team scored five times in the final 20 minutes after the Wolves erased a two-goal lead in the second period, which was a struggle for the Greyhounds in the game.
After taking a 3-1 lead nearing the midway point of the frame, the Greyhounds gave up two quick goals, including one on a shot from the neutral zone that erased the lead.
“We can make the excuse that a couple of quick goals there put us in a bit of a different mental state and put Sudbury in a very positive place,” Dean said. “We have to respond a little bit better than we did. Over the course of the rest of the period, we gave up a little too much.”
Dean added that he felt the Greyhounds “got away from our game a little bit there in the second period.”
“That’s something that we need to take these next four games a really grow,” Dean added. “Really find a way to not get too high or too low.”
Veteran forward Cole MacKay called the team “hot and cold” in the victory.
“We went through difference spells of playing really well and dominating the game and then some of our old habits that we want to nip in the bud came back,” MacKay said, adding that it’s a focus going forward for the team. “That’s what we’re going to focus on tomorrow is to try to play a full 60, but we did a lot of good things, but there is still a lot to clean up.”
While the team struggled at times in the second half of the game, the team came away from Friday’s win pleased with the start, among other things.
“The first period was really solid,” Dean said. “I loved the way we closed the D zone and we played very connected. That means good five-foot passes, constant support of the puck and everyone wanting the puck. Offensively, we did a really good job of getting above in the offensive zone and managing the puck in a really good way.”
Asked for an overall assessment of the win, Dean said “we did a lot of good things, but we gave up way too much.”
“We let guys get behind us quite a bit in the second half of the game,” Dean added. “We gave up a lot of odd-man rushes in the second half of the game. What happened is, we found some success in the offensive zone and just took it a little bit too far. We started mismanaging pucks in the offensive zone and diving down a little bit. Those are chances we need to eliminate.”
“At times we were good in the offensive zone and controlled the play, but at times we also gave up too much and tried to do too much in the offensive zone,” added overage forward Tye Kartye. “We have to find a balanced medium.”
Greyhounds forward Bryce McConnell-Barker opened the scoring with a power play goal in the opening period.
The rookie forward took a pass near the blueline from defenceman Kirill Kudryavtsev, skated to the top of the left circle and beat Sudbury goaltender Mitchell Weeks high short side at 15:49 to make it 1-0 Greyhounds.
Cole MacKay made it 2-0 Greyhounds late in the opening period when he went to the net and scored on a rebound after a shot by Tye Kartye with 1:16 to go in the period.
Sudbury got on the board in the second period when Ryan Smith got in behind the Greyhounds defence, went to the net, and redirected a pass from David Goyette 5-hole on Greyhounds starter Samuel Ivanov at 3:41.
MacKay restored the two-goal lead at 8:35 when he skated into the Sudbury zone shorthanded, cut through the slot and then beat Weeks with a shot through some traffic from the right circle to make it 3-1.
Midway through the period with the Wolves in the late stages of a power play, Wolves defenceman Matthew Mania sent the puck on net from the neutral zone, and it beat a surprised Ivanov after making contact with Liam Ross of the Wolves, also in the neutral zone, to cut the Greyhounds lead back down to one goal.
Just 1:11 later, Kocha Delic tied the game for the Wolves, beating Ivanov glove side from the left circle after taking a pass from Dominik Jendek on a 2-on-1. The goal ended the night for Ivanov, who was replaced by Tucker Tynan in goal for the Greyhounds.
With a power play to start the third period, the Greyhounds needed just 11 seconds to take a 4-3 lead as Kartye gave the visitors the lead.
“I won the draw back and we had Cole posted and Rory flying around to that side,” Kartye said. “Luckily we got it up to Cole and he made a nice bump to Rory and I was flying down the far side and he got me the puck and I managed to put it in.”
Dean called it “a huge goal.”
“That’s a credit to Jamie Tardif,” Dean added. “He drew up that play right before the boys went out there.”
Jack Thompson made it 5-3 Greyhounds at 7:07 when he took a pass from Rory Kerins on the left side, skated into the right circle and beat Weeks high glove side.
Kartye then made it 6-3 when he took a pass in the slot from Kerins below the goalline and beat Weeks high stick side at 7:46.
Goyette proceeded to cut the lead to 6-4 when he scored on a back-door pass from Smith on the left wing at 15:43, but MacKay made it 7-4 with his third of the night 1:57 later.
After shots by Kartye and Ryan O’Rourke were turned aside, MacKay scored on the third opportunity for the Greyhounds.
Jordan D’Intino capped off the scoring with an empty net goal in the final seconds of the game.
Ivanov stopped seven of 10 shots in the game for the Greyhounds before being pulled. Tynan stopped 17 of 18 shots the rest of the way.
“The guys gave Tucker the team award after the game. They thought he got challenged quite a bit in the second half of that game,” Dean said. “For him to come in cold and see a couple of real tough shots from odd-man rushes to breakaways. It was a really good job by Tucker doing what he’s supposed to do.”
MacKay, Kartye, and Kerins finished the night with four points each in the win.
MacKay had three goals and an assist while Kartye had two of each and Kerins assisted on four goals.
McConnell-Barker added a goal and a pair of assists while Thompson had one of each for the Greyhounds.
Weeks made 35 saves for the Wolves.
The Greyhounds improve to 36-21-6-1 with the win and sit two points behind the Flint Firebirds, who were off on Friday night, for third in the Western Conference.
Both the Greyhounds and Firebirds are in action on Saturday night with the Greyhounds hosting the Wolves in a 7:07 p.m. start at the GFL Memorial Gardens and the Firebirds hosting the Erie Otters.
The Firebirds have a game in hand on the Greyhounds following Friday night and will play that game on Sunday against the Sarnia Sting.
With the loss, the Wolves fall to 23-35-3-4. The team remains in the hunt for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, but need to win out in their final three games of the season and have the Peterborough Petes lose their remaining three contests to get in. Another loss by the Wolves or a win by the Petes would eliminate Sudbury from playoff contention.
On the injury front for the Greyhounds, rookie forward Tyler Savard missed Friday’s game after he was injured in Monday’s win over the Sarnia Sting.
Dean said Friday night that the rookie winger won’t play on Saturday and is out day-to-day.