Four unanswered goals pace Attack over Greyhounds

OWEN SOUND, Ont. – It’s safe to say that Wednesday night the Soo Greyhounds are facing a must-win situation.

On Monday night, the Greyhounds surrendered four unanswered goals in a 6-2 loss to the Owen Sound Attack at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre in Owen Sound.

The victory gives the Attack a 2-1 series lead in their Western Conference semifinal series heading into game four Wednesday night, also in Owen Sound.

“Any playoff game is a must-win,” said Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister. 

Bannister felt the Greyhounds “got out-competed for loose pucks” in Monday’s loss.

“In our defensive zone and even in the offensive zone in front of the net, the difference in the game was that they were hungrier to win those battles and score those goals than we were,” Bannister added. 

Bannister added he didn’t feel the Greyhounds “did enough to generate offence.”

“It was similar to game one,” Bannister added. “We didn’t generate enough chances and the chances we did generate, we weren’t able to score.”

Owen Sound Coach Todd Gill said the Attack were forced to make some adjustments after an opening period that saw the teams trade goals.

“We had to make a few adjustments, they were coming at us with too much speed,” Gill said. “We did slow them down a bit, got some opportunities and put the puck in the net.”

Gill also credited the Attack penalty kill, which killed off three of the Greyhounds four power plays, including three man advantages in the second period when the game was still close. 

“I like that guys were selling their bodies and making blocks,” Gill said. “And when they didn’t get the block, (Olivier Lafreniere) was there to make a save.”

“The three in the second period, we didn’t gain any momentum off of them,” Bannister said. “That was a good opportunity for us to jump ahead in the game and get ourselves going but it took the wind out of our sails.”

Lafreniere made 28 saves for the Attack.

“He doesn’t have to go out and win us hockey games, he just has to be good,” Gill said. “You need that save and our bench just gets so much confidence off of it and we roll.”

At the other end, Matthew Villalta made 21 saves for the Greyhounds.

“It wasn’t a night that was one of his best,” Bannister said. “We needed some saves at opportune times and we didn’t get them.”

Morgan Frost and Keeghan Howdeshell scored for the Greyhounds.

Kevin Hancock paced the Attack with a pair of goals while Maksim Sushko assisted on three goals. Cade Robinson had a goal and an assist. Sean Durzi, Brett McKenzie and Trenton Bourque had two assists each. 

Alan Lyszczarczyk, Ethan Szypula, and Aidan Dudas also scored for Owen Sound.

The Attack lost the services of highly-skilled forward Jonah Gadjovich in the game. He left the game in the second period and did not return.

Gill said Gadjovich would be evaluated further but didn’t elaborate on the extent of the injury.

Puck drop for Wednesday’s game is 7 p.m. while game five is Friday night in Sault Ste. Marie. Puck drop at the Essar Centre is 7:07 p.m.

In other action on Monday night, Kirill Maksimov scored at 11:27 of overtime to give the Niagara IceDogs a 4-3 win over the Hamilton Bulldogs. Ben Jones had a goal and two assists for the IceDogs. The Bulldogs lead the series 2-1.