In the end, they went from what was likely their worst period of the season to one of their best.
That was the difference for the Soo Greyhounds on Thursday night as the team used a four-goal third period to grab a victory on the road.
The Greyhounds scored four unanswered goals in the final 20 minutes Thursday night to beat the North Bay Battalion 4-1 in Ontario Hockey League play in North Bay as the team continued a three-game road trip.
The third period came on the heels of middle period that Greyhounds coach John Dean called their worst of the season.
"Night and day," Dean said of the difference between the two periods.
"The second period looked like a lot of fancy, individual efforts without a lot of compete," Dean added. "The third period looked deliberate, competitive, and a team-first mentality with a ton of compete."
Dean said the message between periods was a simple one.
"I said, 'Guys, if you need a coach to motivate you and yell at you to get going, then we don't have the team we think we do. Go out there, don't hold your sticks tight, play a competitive brand of hockey that's deliberate with speed. Stop trying to problem solve every issue that comes up and go win yourselves a hockey game,'" Dean said. "I'm really proud of them because they've shown that we can treat them like grownups and professionals and they'll respond in a positive way."
Dean called a goal by Travis Hayes early on in the final period as the play that set the tone for the third.
"We have three elite players on that line and they all want to make plays and I respect them for that. They're extremely skilled," Dean said. "Travis Hayes has an opportunity to make a pass to his teammate and he says, 'Forget it, I'm chipping it in and I'm going to hunt this puck down and set the tone for the rest of the team'"
"Hayes does that on his first shift," Dean added. "We get rewarded for it and then everyone settles in."
Dean called goaltender Noah Tegelaar "exceptional."
"This is what we need from our goaltenders is when our team is fighting the puck, we have a really tough 20 minutes, our goaltender doesn't," Dean said. "He takes care of business for us and our guys answer the bell for him the third period. That second period by Tiegs is absolutely incredible."
In the second period, where the Greyhounds were outshot by a 17-6 margin, the rookie netminder kept the game close before the team took over in the third period.
"I just feel really good," Tegelaar said when asked about the second period. "Obviously that's the goal, just to keep the team in it when they're having some trouble scoring. It means a lot just to keep the team in it and give them a chance."
"Battling, that's all you can really do," Tegelaar added. "Just try to make the game easier and keep battling for the team."
Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen said he felt his team might have deserved a better fate in the game.
"We deserved better tonight," Oulahen said, speaking to BayToday. "The first period seemed like a bit of a feeling each other out process. The second period, I loved it. We were on our toes, we were generating a lot. We were hard to play against."
The teams skated through a scoreless opening period that saw the Greyhounds outshoot the Battalion 11-8.
The Battalion opened the scoring in the middle stanza thanks to a power play marker with the teams playing four on three. Defenceman Kent Greer stepped in from the blueline and beat Greyhounds goaltender Noah Tegelaar high stick side through some traffic to give the home team a 1-0 lead 2:47 into the frame.
North Bay's lead would hold until the early stages of the third period when the Greyhounds found their legs a bit offensively.
Hayes got the visitors on the board at 2:52 of the third when he skated into the North Bay zone and regained control of the puck after slipping past a Battalion defender and skating in alone on goaltender Mike McIvor. Hayes proceeded to beat McIvor stick side to tie the game at one.
A trio of North Bay penalties less than a minute apart put the Greyhounds on a long five-on-three man advantage shortly after the Hayes goal and the Greyhounds took advantage to grab the lead.
Christopher Brown made it a 2-1 game, grabbing a loose puck after Marco Mignosa's initial chance from the left side of the net got through traffic in tight and landed on Brown's stick and he proceeded to beat McIvor at 5:38.
With 3:32 to go in regulation time, defenceman Chase Reid added some insurance as he skated into the slot and beat McIvor on a rebound after the Battalion goaltender stopped a Spencer Evans shot from the left point initially on the play.
Brady Martin capped off the scoring with an empty net goal with a minute to go in the third to make it 4-1 Greyhounds.
Martin finished the night with a goal and three assists for the Greyhounds.
Tegelaar made 26 saves in the victory while McIvor stopped 32 Sault shots at the other end for the Battalion.
The Greyhounds will wrap up their three-game road trip on Saturday in Oshawa with a game against the Generals.
With Thursday's result, the Greyhounds improve to 10-6-1-0 on the season while North Bay falls to 7-8-0-0.
Notes: Thursday saw one of the OHL's potential title contenders, the Brantford Bulldogs, pull the trigger on a major trade with the Generals.
The Generals deal veteran defencemen Ben Danford and Zack Sandhu to Brantford in exchange for Aiden O'Donnell, Lucas Moore, Luca Diplacido, second round picks in 2026 (originally Ottawa's), 2027 (originally Kingston's), and 2028, third round picks in 2028 (originally Sudbury's) and two third rounders in 2029 (originally Guelph's and Brampton's), fourth round picks in 2026 and 2029, and a 10th round pick (originally Barrie's) in 2027.