With a spot in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs clinched, Soo Greyhounds coach John Dean called the last eight weeks for his team “a grind.”
It wasn’t easy, but the Greyhounds clinched a playoff spot on Friday night with a win on home ice against a division rival.
A quick start helped the team to a 7-4 victory over the Saginaw Spirit at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
It was a game that continued a taxing stretch for the team in the late stages of the OHL regular season.
“We’re asking so much of this young group,” Dean said. “Emotionally, physically. For them to answer the bell like they did tonight, it’s super impressive.”
Dean said the first period was the best period the Greyhounds have played this season “considering the magnitude of the game.”
“The start was definitive,” Dean said, adding that the forecheck and power play were “incredible” early in the game.
“We played a very fast brand of hockey, very predictable and quick,” Dean added. “We looked like a very hungry team trying to fight for seventh.
After facing the Greyhounds eight times in the regular season, Spirit coach Chris Lazary called the Greyhounds “a different team” with their full lineup after many of the previous meetings between the two clubs had the Greyhounds short key veterans.
The Spirit coach called the start a difference in the game after the Greyhounds jumped out to a 3-0 lead and outshot the visitors by a 15-7 margin in the frame.
“We didn’t like our start,” Lazary said. “We played a good final 40. We just couldn’t stay disciplined. We couldn’t get ourselves out of the hole that we started with.”
“We had nothing to play for,” Lazary added when asked further about the start. “It’s hard to get intensity. It’s human nature.”
Lazary added that he felt the Spirit “did a good job resetting” after the opening period, but “our discipline issues buried us.”
After opening up a 3-0 lead through one period, Dean said the final two periods weren’t easy at times for his club.
“I’m happy we found a way to get it done,” Dean said when asked about the third period. “You go up by two there, you don’t want to supply that fourth goal. That one bothers me, but the will in this group, it’s tough for me to critique a period.”
Asked if the Spirit considered resting players for the game with the team in fourth in the Western Conference and their playoff position already solidified, Lazary called dressing a full lineup a coaching decision and said the team would reevaluate the decision heading into their final two regular season games.
The Greyhounds opened the scoring 96 seconds into the contest as Noel Nordh found some open ice in the slot and took a pass from Brady R. Smith before beating Saginaw goaltender Kaleb Papineau.
The locals then made it a 2-0 game 3:24 later as Nordh took a pass in the right faceoff circle from Marco Mignosa and beat Papineau with a one-timer on the power play.
Brady Martin made it a 3-0 game at 11:07 when he converted a chance in close to the left of the net, beating Papineau.
Saginaw got on the board thanks to a power play goal early in the second period. Calem Mangone found himself in the right faceoff circle on the power play and beat Greyhounds goaltender Nolan Lalonde after taking a pass from Michael Misa 6:25 into the period.
Mangone then picked up his second of the night at 10:42 when he beat Lalonde, again on the power play. This time, the Spirit forward beat Lalonde from the left faceoff circle after taking a pass from Igor Chernyshov.
The Greyhounds made it a 4-2 game with 4:21 to go in the second period. With the Sault on the power play, Chase Reid took a shot from the high slot that was partially blocked by Saginaw forward Sebastien Gervais but deflected past Papineau.
Saginaw again made it a one-goal game in the opening minute of the third period. After Zayne Parekh narrowly kept the puck in at the blueline, he hit Misa with a pass and the latter beat Lalonde to make it a 4-3 game 34 into the period.
The Greyhounds took a 5-3 lead at 5:36 when Maritn skated into the Saginaw zone and scored on a loose puck after his initial shot from the slot was blocked by a Spirit defender.
Saginaw got the game back to within one 54 seconds later when Dimian Zhilkin skated into the Sault zone and beat Lalonde to make it a 5-4 game.
Brady R. Smith capped off the scoring for the Greyhounds with a pair of late goals, both into an empty net.
“He’s grown so much since the start of the year,” Dean said of Smith, who finished the night with two goals and an assist. “I trust him in all situations. I can’t wait for his offensive touch to come out because he’s generating so many opportunities for himself.”
Nordh paced the Greyhounds with two goals and three assists in the victory.
Dean called Nordh “the story of the game.”
In addition to a two-goal night from Martin, Reid added a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds while Mignosa assisted on a pair of goals.
Lalonde stopped 24 shots in the win.
Mangone had two goals and an assist for the Spirit while Misa had one of each.
Parekh and Kristian Epperson assisted on two goals each for Saginaw.
Papineau made 31 saves for Saginaw.
Christopher Brown remained out of the lineup for the Greyhounds due to injury.
Charlie Hilton also missed the game while serving the second game of a two-game suspension and will be eligible to return to the lineup on Sunday afternoon.
The Greyhounds will take a 28-35-2-2 record into Sunday’s regular season finale against the Sarnia Sting and clinched seventh in the conference thanks in part to a loss by the Owen Sound Attack in Kitchener against the Rangers on Friday night.
Depending on the results of the final two games of the regular season for the Flint Firebirds, sixth in the conference remains a possibility.
The Firebirds, who lost to Sarnia on Friday, are scheduled to face Saginaw in a home-and-home set to finish off the regular season this weekend.
Flint sits one point ahead of the Greyhounds in the standings going into their final two games. The Firebirds need either a Greyhounds loss on Sunday against Sarnia or two points out of their final two games of the season to finish in sixth.
The Greyhounds confirmed following Friday’s game that their first two home games in the opening round of the playoffs are scheduled for March 31 and April 2.
Saginaw comes out of Friday’s contest with a 37-26-2-1 record. Saginaw has won four of the six meetings between the Spirit and Firebirds this season.