On a night when their penalty kill was a difference early on. It was a power play goal against in the final period that changed things in a hurry in the final 20 minutes.
A power play goal just under three minutes into the final period that sparked the Saginaw Spirit, who scored five unanswered goals en route to a 5-2 win over the Soo Greyhounds at Saginaw’s Dow Event Center in Ontario Hockey League play.
The goal, scored by rookie forward Dimian Zhilkin, was the lone power play goal for the Spirit on nine man advantages in the victory, but discipline was the ultimate story for the Greyhounds.
“Complete lack of discipline,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said. “You’re not going to win giving any team nine power plays, let alone the Saginaw Spirit.”
“It tires a lot of guys out,” Dean also said.
Dean told reporters following the game that sending a message will come during the week for the team.
“It’s going to be a tough practice on Tuesday,” Dean said.
Asked about the Greyhounds discipline in the loss, a frustrated Jordan Charron said, “some of the guys are maybe playing selfish and not playing for their teammates.”
“We took some dumb penalties, and it took a turn on us,” Charron added.
Veteran forward Justin Cloutier said he was both angry and disappointed following the loss.
“We were undisciplined and that really cost us,” Cloutier said.
The 19-year-old said the discipline issue is one that “we’ve addressed before.”
“It’s got to start with me,” Cloutier added. “The older guys have to be better. We can’t take penalties like that.”
“We can’t be the ones taking penalties,” Cloutier said of the Greyhounds older players.
The Greyhounds opened the scoring as Marco Mignosa took a pass in the left circle from Travis Hayes and proceeded to beat Saginaw goaltender Kaleb Papineau glove side at 17:17 of the opening period.
The goal came after the visitors killed off a pair of 5-on-3’s midway through the opening period.
The Greyhounds took a 2-0 lead in the second period as Charron took a pass from Brady R. Smith on a 2-on-1 and beat Papineau after Smith outwaited a Saginaw defender before making the pass at 5:05.
Zhilkin’s power play goal came 2:42 into the final period as the rookie forward scored on a rebound in close after Greyhounds goaltender Nolan Lalonde made a save on a shot by Michael Misa from the high slot initially.
Saginaw proceeded to tie the game at 7:56 as Jacob Cloutier took a pass in the slot from Carson Harmer below the goalline and beat Lalonde high glove side and then gave the Spirit a 3-2 lead at 12:47 when he took a pass from Sebastien Gervais and beat Lalonde with a shot from the right faceoff circle high short side.
Zayne Parekh made it a 4-2 game at 16:26 when he sent the puck into the slot from the top of the right faceoff circle and it deflected past Lalonde off a Greyhound player.
An empty net goal by Kristian Epperson with 1:11 to go capped off the scoring.
Lalonde made 43 saves for the Greyhounds.
Dean called Lalonde “incredible” in the loss.
“He gave us a chance to win a game and basically kills off (Saginaw’s power plays) and we just continued to go in the box,” Dean added. “I’m very disappointed for him.”
“Lonzie was fantastic tonight,” Cloutier added. “We screwed him tonight. He comes back to Saginaw and we want to help him out. Lonzie did his part, but we didn’t do ours.”
Papineau stopped 23 shots for Saginaw.
In addition to the two-goal night for Cloutier for the Spirit, Parekh had a goal and an assist for Saginaw while Misa and Calem Mangone assisted on two goals each.
The Greyhounds are slated to return to action on Thursday night in the opening game of a road trip that will take to the team to North Bay before games on Saturday in Barrie and Sunday afternoon in Oshawa.
With Sunday’s loss, the Greyhounds fall to 19-27-1-1 on the season and sit five points behind the Sarnia Sting and Flint Firebirds in the OHL’s Western Conference standings.
Currently holding onto the eighth and final playoff position in the conference, the Greyhounds are just two points ahead of the ninth-seeded Owen Sound Attack.
With the victory, Saginaw improves to 25-20-1-1.