Greyhounds continue to roll away from home

It’s hard for them to put their finger on exactly what’s made them so successful away from home.

The road warriors that are the Soo Greyhounds continued to roll away from home on Friday night in a 9-1 Ontario Hockey League victory over the Sarnia Sting in Sarnia.

With the victory, the Greyhounds improve to 18-5-1-1 away from the GFL Memorial Gardens this season.

“I don’t know,” coach John Dean said when asked what it is that’s made the Greyhounds as successful as the team has been on the road.

“It’s something that we need to think about,” Dean added. “It’s now become something that we have to look at. Coach Tyler Ertel’s been bugging me about it for a long time. At some point, you can’t ignore it. We’re going to deep dive into why we’re so special on the road and why that’s not quite translating the same way at home.”

Dean added that he feels the Greyhounds are “definitely a group that’s motivated by adversity.”

“We like being the villain a little bit, there’s no doubt about it,” Dean added. “I don’t see why we can’t take that same mentality to a team that’s coming and trying to steal our ice from us (at home).”

“We have a confidence as a group,” Greyhounds forward Owen Allard said. “We know (that) when we play our best hockey, we’re the best team in the league and no one wants to play us. We come into barns, we make noise and we’re really relentless and we’ve always got something to prove, especially coming from last year. Playing these teams that were beating us last year, it’s just motivation to come into their barn and put it to them. We’ve done a good job on the road this year.”

Allard added that the Greyhounds play on the road is something the team wants to bring to playing at home and “make it a real hard place to play.”

Friday’s win was one that saw a lot of things go right for the Greyhounds.

“We were really connected as a group,” Allard said of the win. “We were finding each other. We had lots of confidence with the puck. That definitely helps and it always helps too when our power play is clicking. That’s a big reason why we had a good night. We’ve got some special players on the power play, so whenever we’re moving around, we’re creating chances. It’s a good chance it’s going in the back of the net. (The power play) showed that tonight.”

“It was a really good team effort,” Greyhounds defenceman Brodie McConnell-Barker said. “We all contributed together. We played really hard.”

The rookie defenceman added that the team’s offensive success on the road trip, which included a win over Windsor on Thursday night, has been due to multiple factors.

“It’s putting pucks behind the D and competing hard and getting the puck back,” McConnell-Barker said of the offensive output in the two-game trip. “It’s mainly effort, getting the puck back and being competitive.”

Dean said that the Greyhounds play throughout much of the game left little doubt that the team was in a good position in the contest.

Dean added that through the final two periods, one thing that stood out for him was the team continued “doing all the right things.”

“Zone time, I liked that we were willing to get to the paint. We’re trying to get guys in front of the net a little bit more,” Dean said. “We tend to overpass the puck, especially with our skillset. I liked that we got pucks to paint. And a big one for me is when we got the big deficit, it was really interesting how our guys were continuously tracking back, getting above pucks, doing all the right things.”

It wasn’t until the final minute of the opening period that the Greyhounds opened the scoring in the contest.

Jacob Frasca picked up his first goal as a member of the team with 33 seconds to go in the frame as he scored on a rebound after Sarnia goaltender Karsen Chartier stopped the overage forward’s initial shot on the play.

The visitors made it a 2-0 game in the second period when Marco Mignosa took a pass from Allard high in the Sarnia zone, skated into the slot and beat Chartier with a shot glove side though some traffic at 12:12.

The Greyhounds took a 3-0 lead just over three minutes later when Brady Martin took a sharp angle shot from the left faceoff circle that banked in off Sarnia defenceman Mitch Young as Chartier tried to get over to make the save,

On the power play in the final minute of the second period, Allard extended the lead further as he sent the puck to the net, and it deflected past Chartier off a Sarnia player.

The Greyhounds took a 5-0 lead just over four minutes into the third period when Jack Beck went to the net and redirected a pass from Mignosa that was stopped. The overage forward proceeded to score on the rebound.

With the Greyhounds on the man advantages, Gavin Hayes took a shot from the right faceoff circle that beat Chartier high glove side at 9:44 to make it 6-0.

Andrew Gibson made it 7-0 at 13:03 when he beat Chartier with a shot through traffic from the right faceoff circle stick side.

Just under three minutes later, Julian Fantino beat Chartier stick side from the high slot to make it 8-0.

Nathan Omeri broke Landon Miller’s shutout bid with 3:17 to go in regulation time as he beat the Sault netminder on a rebound from the right faceoff circle after the rookie goaltender stopped a Carter Kostuch shot from the left circle initially.

Jordan D’Intino capped off the scoring in the final minute of the third period when he skated down the let wing, cut in, and slid a backhand past Chartier glove side.

Gibson, Beck, and Allard had a goal and an assist each for the Greyhounds while McConnell-Barker assisted on three goals.

Frasca, Mignosa, and Fantino added a goal and an assist each in the win.

Miller made 24 saves while Chartier stopped 23 shots at the other end.

With the win, the Greyhounds improve to 28-12-2-1 on the season. The Greyhounds hold a four-point lead on the Saginaw Spirit for top spot in the OHL’s West Division. The Spirit, who have three games in hand on the Greyhounds, also won on Friday night.

Sarnia, in a battle with the Flint Firebirds and Windsor Spitfires for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, fall to 16-25-2-0 on the season and sit three points behind Flint for eighth.