When you ask Soo Greyhounds goaltender Charlie Schenkel about his relationship with goalie coach Mark Visentin, the veteran netminder is quite candid.
“He’s one of the best people and coaches I’ve ever met in my entire life,” Schenkel said.
The veteran netminder went as far as saying Visentin has changed his life and “got me through some dark places.”
The overage netminder’s work with his goalie coach showed on Friday night as Schenkel stopped 29 shots in a 4-0 win by the Greyhounds over the Peterborough Petes in Ontario Hockey League play at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
The days leading up to Friday’s win were ones in which the netminder built some added confidence that helped him through the shutout.
“I got a great week of work under my belt with (Visentin),” Schenkel said. “We really dialed in my game and built a lot of confidence.”
Schenkel added that some high-intensity practices in the days leading up to Friday’s contest were helpful in the game, especially in the final 40 minutes.
“I felt great,” Schenkel said of Friday’s victory. “I just wanted to give my team a chance to win. Our team needed this one.”
“Charlie was great,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said, adding that the veteran was impactful over the final two periods as the Greyhounds maintained their lead.
“They were by far the better team for the last forty minutes,” Dean said.
Dean called the Greyhounds start “the story of the win.”
Dean added that he felt the Greyhounds had “a pucks to paint mentality.”
“Guys (were) getting to the net with speed, burying rebounds,” Dean added. “We agreed that we wanted to set the tone early and try to get ten shots in the first ten minutes. We were successful in that, but that’s probably where the success ends.”
Petes head coach Rob Wilson said he didn’t feel his team was “faceoff ready” and it proved costly as the team fell behind 3-0 before the opening period was 10 minutes old.
“We were very complacent, puck watching, not really committed to structure and it cost us early and you can’t come back from that,” Wilson said. “I loved our last fifty minutes. They played really hard. They battled and they worked.”
Wilson added that the message following the opening period with his team down three was that there were two options.
“You could go out and fold the tent and blame somebody else or you can go out and work,” Wilson said. “You have a lot of fun when you work and when you work, you get results, event if you don’t win the hockey game. There’s something to build on.”
Dean said the team’s mindset changed after the fast start.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys that think they’re better than they are,” Dean said. “It’s not that they’re not capable of playing very well in this league, it’s that the brand of hockey we need to play to be successful is different than the way some guys want to play right now.”
Dean went on to say he was “very happy with a number of guys and very disappointed with a number of guys.”
“You cannot play this game inside an identity crisis,” Dean added. “We’ve got a couple of guys that are playing a way that’s not conducive to Hounds hockey.”
Dean said the first 10 minutes of Friday’s win made it “look like we were on our way to solving (the identity crisis).”
“Guys proved that we’re not willing to go for a full sixty,” Dean said. “That suggests that we don’t know who we are still. Anytime you have guys off script, you can’t win in this league that way. You need guys all tugging on the same rope.”
The Greyhounds opened the scoring as Jordan Charron beat Petes goaltender Easton Rye high glove side from in close after Chase Reid’s initial shot was stopped from the left circle 96 seconds into the hockey game.
Justin Cloutier made it a 2-0 game at 3:52 as he beat Rye on a rebound after the Petes netminder made a stop on a deflection by Allard initially.
The locals took a 3-0 lead as Allard poked in a loose puck in the crease at 9:40 after a point shot by Reid was partially blocked on the way to the net.
After a scoreless second period, the Greyhounds made it 4-0 as Marco Mignosa took a pass from Allard on a 2-on-1 and beat Rye high glove side at 11:56 to cap off the scoring.
Allard finished the night with a goal and two assists while Reid assisted on three goals for the Greyhounds in the victory.
Rye made 26 saves for the Petes in the setback.
The Greyhounds face a short turnaround as the team returns to action Saturday night on the road in Saginaw against the Spirit.
The team will take a 16-20-0-0 record into that game.
The Greyhounds and Spirit are separated by five points in the OHL standings heading into the game.
With the loss, the Petes fall to 7-24-2-4.
Notes: Greyhounds defenceman Keegan Gillen was named the OHL West Division’s academic player of the month Friday.
The rookie defenceman has a 90 per cent average in Grade 12 studies locally at Superior Heights
Ahead of the game, the Petes announced the signing of German defenceman Rio Kaiser.
Kaiser competed for Germany at the 2025 World Juniors and started the season playing in his home country before signing with Peterborough.