With both teams riding losing streaks entering the night, the points were a little more crucial for the Soo Greyhounds on Thursday night.
Looking to snap a four-game losing skid, the Greyhounds got a power play goal in overtime to pick up a 2-1 Ontario Hockey League win over the Windsor Spitfires on Wednesday night at the WFCU Centre in Windsor.
After Connor Corcoran took an interference penalty just over a minute into the extra frame, Calisti would eventually take a cross-ice feed from Billy Constantinou and beat Windsor netminder Xavier Medina with a one-timer from the right circle to give the Greyhounds the win.
Calisti had an opportunity earlier in the power play, hitting Medina in the mask moments after Zack Trott hit the crossbar. Both chances came from the right circle.
“I’m just really excited for the guys,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said. “When you put yourself on the line, it’s a really scary thing to do. When you put yourself out there and put 110 per cent into something, the scary part is, you might try your hardest and fail. It’s a daunting task for junior A players and young guys trying to figure out how to win. Tonight, they put themselves on the line and put their egos to the side and I’m happy to see them get rewarded.”
“It shows them that if they put their minds to it, they can beat anybody,” Dean also said.
The win came against a Windsor team that has had the Greyhounds number this season, beating them in all four previous meetings, outscoring them 32-13 in the process.
“The way they’ve run roughshod over us over this year, for us to be challenged by a team like that and play the way we did, for our mental state we really believe we can beat all sorts of different style of teams,” Dean said. “They’re a big, strong team and for us, we really had to bear down on our positioning and it shows that when our guys want to do it and put their mind to it, we have a pretty solid group here.”
Constantinou had a pair of assists for the Greyhounds.
The smooth-skating blueliner set up Jaromir Pytlik for the Greyhounds first goal just under eight minutes into the contest.
Pytlik opened the scoring in the game as he moved into the slot and beat Medina with a shot through Windsor defenceman Joseph Rupoli.
Both of the Sault goals in the game came by way of the power play.
“We just moved the puck and won our battles when we needed to,” Calisti said of the power play, which went 2-for-4 on the night. “We had a lot of zone time and our big dogs were shooting.”
Windsor’s lone goal game off the stick of Curtis Douglas.
Parked near the edge of the Sault crease, Douglas tipped a shot from the left circle by Louka Henault past Greyhounds goaltender Bailey Brkin.
Dean credited the Greyhounds defensive play in the game as well.
“We did a great job of clogging inside the dots in our own zone,” Dean said. “We’ve tried it before and went too passive. Today was a perfect mix of making sure we got inside the dots but not letting them circle the wagon on the perimeter and break us down. We did a really good job of maintaining aggression in our end while protecting inside the house.”
Brkin made 26 saves for the Greyhounds while Medina made 30 saves for Windsor.
The points are crucial for the Greyhounds, who move to withing three points of the Erie Otters for the eighth and final playoff spot in the OHL’s Western Conference.
The Otters hold two games in hand on the Greyhounds with both teams in action on Friday night. The Greyhounds are in London to face the Knights while Erie is also on the road, taking on the Guelph Storm at the Sleeman Centre.
The Greyhounds will take a 26-29-2-3 record into action on Friday.
“(Associate coach) Jordan Smith said something to me that was really on point (after the game) when he said, ‘We’ve got to find a way to put in the same effort after an emotional win,’” Dean said of Friday’s game against London. “We’ve got to find a way to find that mindset again.”
Windsor, in a battle with the Storm for position in the Western Conference, move two points ahead of Guelph thanks to picking up a single point on Wednesday.
Windsor’s record sits at 32-19-6-0. The Spitfires have lost five straight games.
In other action around the OHL on Thursday night, in Peterborough, shootout goals by Philip Tomasino and Kyle MacLean were the difference as the Oshawa Generals beat the Peterborough Petes 4-3. Zach Gallant had a goal and two assists for Peterborough.
In Barrie, Ivan Lodnia had a goal and three assists as the Niagara IceDogs beat the Barrie Colts 6-3. IceDogs goaltender Andrew MacLean made 37 saves.