While it’s a script that’s appeared more than once this season, hanging with one of the Ontario Hockey League’s top teams and a competitive spirit stand out most for Soo Greyhounds coach John Dean.
On a night in which the Kitchener Rangers battled back from a 4-1 deficit to force overtime before picking up a shootout win over the Greyhounds, Dean was focused on the competitive nature of his team in the setback.
“We just competed our butts off,” Dean said. “We have to capitalize on some of our opportunities late in the second. That puts the game away. We can’t let that second goal go in late in the second as well. That really hurts us.”
Dean also said he felt the Greyhounds hung with the Rangers in Wednesday’s contest despite surrendering the lead, which has happened in the past for the team.
“We didn’t throw it away,” Dean said of the loss.
“It didn’t feel like a timid third period. It didn’t feel like a nervous third,” Dean added. “It didn’t feel like some of those last 20 minutes in the past. We’re taking a step in the right direction. Anytime your team puts it all on the ice, I’ve got no problems.”
Chris Grisolia had the shootout winner for the Rangers in the 15th round of the shootout to give the Rangers a 5-4 victory Wednesday night at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
The Rangers triumph also spoiled a strong performance from overage goaltender Nolan Lalonde for the Greyhounds, who made some big saves in overtime as well as the shootout for the Sault.
“Overtime was unbelievable and the shootout was unbelievable,” Dean said in speaking about Lalonde. “I felt bad for him because two of the goals are tipped in. They do a really good job of getting their stick on the puck.”
Asked about the redirections, Dean said “two of the tips that come to mind for me, we have coverage, we have guys working hard and they happen to get a stick on it.”
“When guys are competing the way they did tonight, you’re not going to hear me complain about petty details,” Dean added.
Rangers coach Jussi Ahokas said the comeback played into Kitchener’s ability to not quit in games.
“The good thing about our team is we don’t stop. We don’t quit,” Ahokas said. “I knew that if we got one goal, we would be in the game.”
Overall in the victory, Ahokas said he felt his team was “okay.”
“We could have been more physical,” Ahokas said. “Five-on-five we were good. Special teams, we need to be better.”
Ahokas also credited Lalonde for the Greyhounds as well as Rangers netminder Jason Schaubel in the game.
The Greyhounds got on the board first thanks to a power play in the opening period. Owen Allard deflected a Chase Reid shot past Kitchener goaltender Jason Schaubel glove side 5:22 into the contest.
The locals took a 2-0 lead as Brady Martin beat a Rangers player to the puck in the Kitchener zone and fed a pass to Marco Mignosa. The latter proceeded to beat Schaubel from the slot with the Sault shorthanded at 19:57.
Kitchener cut into the lead in the second period when Cameron Reid went to the net on the power play and redirected a pass from Trent Swick past Lalonde high glove side at 3:12.
Brady Martin added to the Greyhounds lead at 8:01 as he beat Schaubel with a one-timer from the left circle off a pass from Mignosa with the Greyhounds on a two-man advantage.
Martin then picked his second of the night just as a Greyhounds power play expired at 9:40 of the middle period. Martin took a pass in the left circle from Mignosa and proceeded to beat Schaubel to make it a 4-1 game.
With 29 seconds to go in the second period, Kitchener made it a 4-2 game as a shot from the slot by Andrew Vermeulen deflected off Matthew Hlacar and past Lalonde.
Kitchener cut the Sault lead back to one at 8:25 of the third period when Jack Pridham went to the net and deflected a pass from Swick past Lalonde 5-hole.
Kitchener tied the game at four at 15:44 as Luca Romano deflected a Jakub Chromiak point shot past Lalonde.
Martin had a pair of goals and an assist for the Greyhounds in the loss. Mignosa also had a three-point night with a goal and two assists.
Lalonde stopped 40 shots for the Greyhounds and 12 of 15 Kitchener shooters in the shootout.
Reid finished the night with a goal and an assist for the Rangers while Swick assisted on a pair of goals.
Schaubel made 20 saves for Kitchener through 65 minutes of play and stopped 13 Sault shooters in the shootout.
The Greyhounds return to action on Friday night at home when they host the Brantford Bulldogs in a 7:07 p.m. start at the GFL Memorial Gardens in the finale of a four-game homestand.
The Greyhounds record stands at 19-25-1-1 with the shootout loss.
With the point for losing in the shootout, the Greyhounds pull to within a point of the Sarnia Sting for seventh in the OHL’s Western Conference standings and sit two points behind the Flint Firebirds for sixth.
The Sting and Firebirds each have a game in hand on the Sault, who also remain six points up on the Owen Sound Attack for eighth after the Attack lost in overtime Wednesday night against the Erie Otters.
Kitchener improves to 34-9-3-1 with Wednesday’s victory.
With Brady T. Smith and Christopher Brown already out due to injury, the Greyhounds lost Allard in the second period due to injury after he took a hit in the Kitchener zone.
Dean said following the game that the extent of Allard’s injury wasn’t known and his status for this weekend was up in the air.
On Smith, Dean said a potential return to the lineup on Friday would be tight, but there’s a chance he could return to the lineup on Sunday.