During a stretch in which they’ve talked a lot about generating chances and not being able to capitalize on them, it was a power play chance that ultimately led to a win for the Soo Greyhounds on Saturday night.
A power play that has struggled mightily to score, especially at home, was the reason they got a chance to pick up a win as a power play goal with just under six minutes left in regulation time was the tying goal in what turned into a shootout win for the Greyhounds.
Getting themselves to overtime, the Greyhounds scored a pair of times in the ensuing shootout to pick up a 4-3 win over the Barrie Colts Saturday night at the GFL Memorial Gardens in Ontario Hockey League play.
Greyhounds coach John Dean said the shootout, which saw Brady Martin and Marco Mignosa score to win it for the Greyhounds, wasn’t by design through a scouting report.
After Christopher Brown was unsuccessful on the Greyhounds first attempt, Martin and Mignosa both went in and beat Colts goaltender Ben Hrebik with shots high glove side.
Dean called Brown losing the puck on the Greyhounds first attempt “a blessing in disguise for us.”
“It taught us that we can’t go in and make a move,” Dean added. “We have to come in and shoot the puck.”
Colts coach Dylan Smoskowitz called Hrebik “the only reason we got a point tonight.”
“He was phenomenal,” Smoskowitz added.
Asked about the game overall, Dean called it “a big-boy game.”
“That’s a whale of a hockey game,” Dean also said. “The first 10 minutes were exceptional. The second half of the first is all Barrie and then 20 minutes of really good hockey by both teams and then 20 minutes (in the third) where I thought we pushed exceptionally hard.”
Dean also said the game “felt like a playoff hockey game tonight.”
Smoskowitz said he was proud of his team for their effort under the circumstances.
“We had a home game Thursday (against Sudbury), we played really well, then on the road to Sudbury (Friday), played really well again,” Smoskowitz said. “(Saturday), they battled hard. They stuck together.”
While it was a power play goal in the third period that helped the Greyhounds get to overtime, the team went 1-for-7 on the man advantage in the game.
Despite the numbers, Dean said the concern would be amplified if the team struggled to generate chances on the power play.
“If there’s chance generation on the power play, you’re happy,” Dean said.
“Our power play was good tonight,” Dean also said. “It’s not always about the result.”
The Greyhounds got on the board first when a shot from the slot by Quinn McKenzie deflected off teammate Jeremy Martin and past Hrebik at 1:42 into the opening period.
Barrie tied the game at 12:03 when Coel Beaudoin beat Greyhounds goaltender Landon Miller on the power play. Parked in the right faceoff circle, Beaudoin beat Miller with a one-timer off a cross-ice pass from Kashawn Aitcheson.
Barrie took a 2-1 lead just 1:31 later when Calvin Crombie beat Miller on a redirection of a pass from Bode Stewart on the left wing.
In the second period, the Colts took a 3-1 lead when Brad Gardiner grabbed a loose puck in the right faceoff circle and outwaited Miller before tucking the puck past the netminder’s outstretched leg 44 seconds into the frame.
The Greyhounds cut the Colts lead to 3-2 when Jordan Charron took a shot from the top of the left circle that beat Hrebik high short side through traffic at 2:11.
The Greyhounds appeared to tie the game at three with 7:21 to go in regulation time when Mignosa scored on a rebound of a Martin shot from the left circle on the power play, but the goal was waved off after a video review due to goalie interference.
The home side would tie the game later in the 5-on-3 when Reid beat Hrebik from the high slot on a one-timer high glove side on a pass from Mignosa with 5:53 to go in regulation time.
Miller stopped 20 shots for the Greyhounds in the win.
Gardiner was in on all three Barrie goals in the loss, scoring once and assisting on the Colts other two goals in the game.
Hrebik made 37 saves.
Next up for the Greyhounds is a three-game road trip that kicks off on Thursday night when the team faces the Western Conference-leading Windsor Spitfires in Windsor. The team will then face the Kitchener Rangers on Friday night before the trip wraps up with a Sunday-afternoon game against the London Knights.
With Saturday’s win, the Greyhounds improve to 12-8-1-0 on the season.
Barrie falls to 9-7-0-4 with the loss.