For the opening game of the season, the start was about as good as they could have hoped for.
A pair of goals in the opening period and a 16-5 shot advantage helped the Soo Greyhounds to a 6-3 Ontario Hockey League win over the Flint Firebirds at the GFL Memorial Gardens on Friday night.
Ahead of the game, Greyhounds coach John Dean spoke of the need to make sure the compete level was high for the opener and that’s exactly what he got out of the players.
“I’m happy with the compete level of the group,” Dean said. “The fans really got the young guys going. It was a textbook first period in a home opener. It was a nice crowd. For me, it was exciting on the bench to watch the kids play like that and feed off the energy of the building.”
For Dean, there was a lot to like in the opening period as a whole.
“(In the first period) we really tried to make plays without being careless,” Dean said. “We were relentless in the offensive zone in reloading and attacking when we didn’t have the puck and fighting to get it back. That’s the sign of them understanding what it takes to play a complete game.”
The Greyhounds start wasn’t a surprise for Flint coach Eric Wellwood.
“We expected that,” Wellwood said. “It’s their home opener. They’re going to have a lot of energy. They’ve got jump. The effort was there, we just didn’t execute.”
Wellwood was pleased with the Firebirds rebounding in the second with a better period but penalty trouble made things difficult at times.
“We made it 3-2, we had all of the momentum and they call a timeout, we had them on their heels and all of a sudden, we give up two five-on-threes,” Wellwood said.
For the Greyhounds, the second period saw the Firebirds cut a 3-0 lead to 3-2 before a power play goal midway through the frame extended the lead again.
“We got a little careless in the second period and that’s a little bit of youthfulness where you get a three-goal lead and you think you can take your foot off the gas,” Dean said. “That being said, we did a lot of good things in the last 40 minutes as well.”
Cullen McLean paced the Greyhounds offensively with a pair of goals while Cole MacKay, Jaromir Pytlik, and Tanner Dickinson assisted on two goals each.
Holden Wale, Tye Kartye, and Marc Boudreau had the other goals for the Greyhounds.
Overage goaltender Christian Propp made 28 saves.
With a short turnaround, the message following the game was a simple one for Dean.
“A big thing for a young team is don’t let your highs get too high and your lows get too low,” Dean said. “Right now, we’re on a nice little high. The message to the guys after the game was, ‘Congratulation, but it wasn’t good enough and tomorrow we’ll try to be better.’”
Joe Carroll missed the game for the Greyhounds due to injury.
The team will get a boost as overage forward Jaden Peca is slated to return to the Greyhounds lineup on Saturday against North Bay after serving the second game of a two-game suspension in Friday’s season opener.
Jake Durham and Cody Morgan had a goal and an assist each for Flint while Connor Roberts also scored.
Goaltender Anthony Popovich made 29 saves.
In other action around the league on Friday night, in Erie, four unanswered goals in the third period lifted the Erie Otters to a 5-2 win over the Sudbury Wolves. Quinton Byfield scored both goals for Sudbury.
In Kingston, Daniel Walker and Brett Harrison had a goal and an assist each as the Oshawa Generals beat the Kingston Frontenacs 4-1.
In Mississauga, Kyen Sopa had a pair of goals as the Niagara IceDogs beat the Mississauga Steelheads 3-1. Tucker Tynan made 38 saves for the IceDogs.
In North Bay, Matej Pekar had a pair of goals as the Barrie Colts blanked the North Bay Battalion 3-0. Jet Greaves made 29 saves for the shutout.
In Sarnia, Arthur Kaliyev had a goal and two assists as the Hamilton Bulldogs beat the Sarnia Sting 4-3.
In Guelph, Cameron Tolnai had the shootout winner as the Ottawa 67’s beat the Guelph Storm 3-2. Nico Daws made 40 saves for the Storm.
In Kitchener, Ryan Stepien had the overtime winner as the Kitchener Rangers beat the Saginaw Spirit 5-4. Jonathan Yantsis had a pair of goals for Kitchener.
In London, Nick Robertson had two goals and an assist as the Peterborough Petes beat the London Knight 6-4. David Maier and Semyon Der-Arguchintsev had three assists each for the Petes. Hunter Skinner had a pair of goals for the Knights.