It was a result that changed in the blink of an eye.
Despite that, the Soo Greyhounds certainly feel as though they deserved a better fate on Saturday night in a game against one of the Ontario Hockey League’s best teams.
The Barrie Colts used a pair of quick goals late in the third period to beat the Greyhounds 4-2 at Barrie’s Sadlon Arena Saturday.
The goals came on a power play marker by Beau Jelsma to tie the game and an even strength tally by Owen Van Steensel to give the Colts the lead for good with 4:25 to go in regulation time.
Result aside, Greyhounds coach John Dean was confident in his appraisal of the game played by his team Saturday.
“We were the better team,” Dean said.
“What this does is, it shows our team that we can expect to beat any opponent we play on any given night,” Dean also said. “We were incredible tonight. We deserved a better fate. We competed with the first place team in the Eastern Conference.”
“The big takeaway has to be that there’s a blueprint here for us and that the expectation is that we should be in every single game like this and winning these games.”
Dean called the game the Greyhounds best game all season.
“It’s our most complete game,” Dean said. “We controlled play. We limited opportunities against. We played the same way for 60 minutes. I felt like there was a clear identity for our team and a lot of confidence.”
“We deserved to win tonight,” added forward Brady Martin. “If we play like that, we should get paid over time. Good teams stick with it and if we play like that, we’ll be fine.”
“We played well enough,” said forward Travis Hayes. “We should have won that one.”
Hayes agreed that there were portions of the game in which the Greyhounds dominated play.
“We outworked them, we were in their zone pretty much all game,” Hayes said. “We just have to bear down on our chances.”
Martin added that he felt the Greyhounds “competed hard” in the game.
“We outworked them,” Martin added.
With a short turnaround heading into the trip finale on Sunday, Martin said the Greyhounds “have to bring the same thing we did tonight.”
“We have to work hard and compete,” Martin added. “That’s how we’re going to beat teams.”
Dean said overcoming Saturday’s disappointment would be difficult.
“It’s an obstacle that we’re going to have to address,” Dean said. “The most critical takeaway is that we have a style of play that works and when we play it, we stand with the top teams.”
For Van Steensel, the goal was his first with the team since being acquired from the North Bay Battalion ahead of the OHL trade deadline last month.
Saying the goal brought some relief for him personally, Van Steensel said the Colts ability to remain in games has been noticeable since he joined the club.
“It’s just a group that hates to lose,” Van Steensel said in a post-game interview with RogersTV. “We’re here to win and we’re not going to settle for anything less.”
The Greyhounds opened the scoring after capitalizing on a turnover in the opening period. Brady Martin skated the puck into the Colts zone on an odd man rush with Marco Mignosa and beat Barrie goaltender Sam Hillebrandt from the left faceoff circle at 15:45 to make it a 1-0 game.
The game stayed that way until the late stages of the second period when the Colts tied the game at one. Finding himself in the left faceoff circle, Colts forward Emil Hemming beat Greyhounds goaltender Landon Miller with a one-timer off a pass from defenceman Kashawn Aitcheson on the power play at 17:58 to tie the game at one.
Travis Hayes gave the Greyhounds a 2-1 lead at 8:43 of the third period as he deflected a point shot by Mignosa past Hillebrandt in the slot.
With 4:36 to go in regulation time, Barrie tied the game again as Jelsma beat Miller from the high slot on a one-timer on the power play after taking a pass from Hemming.
Van Steensel’s game winner came after a turnover by Greyhounds defenceman Chase Reid below the goalline. Van Steensel proceeded to step out from down low and beat Miller to give Barrie the lead for good.
The Colts sealed the win with 23 seconds to go as Riley Patterson added an empty net goal for Barrie.
Martin finished the night with a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds while Mignosa assisted on both Sault goals in the loss.
Miller made 25 saves in the setback.
Dean called Miller “special.”
“Some of the opportunities against were in a high-danger area where he makes a big save,” Dean added. “The team wanted to battle in front of him because he was battling behind them.”
Hillebrandt stopped 42 shots for Barrie.
The Greyhounds wrap up the weekend with a game Sunday afternoon in Oshawa against the Generals and will take a 20-28-1-1 record into that game.
Saturday’s setback took on some added meaning after the Owen Sound Attack picked up a 4-1 win at home over the North Bay Battalion. With the win, the Attack pull to within two points of the Greyhounds for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Greyhounds also had a chance to gain ground on the Sarnia Sting and Flint Firebirds in the standings. Sarnia gained a point in the standings after a shootout loss in Peterborough and now lead the Sault by four points for seventh.
The Firebirds were off Saturday and remain five points up on the Greyhounds for sixth in the conference standings.
With the win, Barrie improves to 33-14-3-1 on the season and remain in top spot in the OHL’s Eastern Conference. The team gained a point on the second-seeded Brantford Bulldogs in the process after Brantford dropped an overtime decision to the Windsor Spitfires on Saturday night in Windsor.
Reid Thomas served as the backup in Saturday’s game for the Greyhounds after overage netminder Nolan Lalonde was injured in warmup on Thursday night in North Bay.
Dean said Lalonde is out for Sunday’s game and is day-to-day with the plan being he will be evaluated further when the team returns home