They play to take at least a couple of days off after a busy stretch of games, but the Soo Greyhounds came away from their latest game with a good feeling despite a result that wasn’t what they wanted.
A late power play goal was the difference in what was eventually a 6-3 Ontario Hockey League loss to the Brampton Steelheads Friday night at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
Greyhounds coach John Dean said he felt his team deserved a better fate in the game.
“It’s a difficult pill to swallow so late in the third period,” Dean said. “It would be nice to see what the boys would get in the overtime and shootout.”
“We did everything but win today,” Dean also said.
Chance generation was a positive for the Greyhounds as well in the game, but capitalizing on those chances was an issue.
“We generated a lot,” Dean said. “We have to put some in the back of the net. I find we miss the net a lot. It’s one thing to not put it through a guy or pick a corner, but another thing when you have these really glorious opportunities and we miss the net high trying to be too perfect.”
Brampton coach James Richmond said “we might have stole one” when asked by reporters to assess his team in the win.
“We were good, but they pushed the pace better than we did,” Richmond added. “I liked our character. We stayed in the fight.”
Goaltender Brayden Gillespie was strong as well for the Steelheads in the victory, stopping 35 shots for the visitors.
“He was really good,” Richmond said of the veteran netminder, adding that the Steelheads appeared to be on their heels at times after traveling to the Sault from North Bay after a game against the Battalion on Thursday night.
“We looked like we hadn’t slept in a while and (the Sault) come hard,” Richmond added. “They’re playing really well.”
Brampton picked up the win thanks to a power play goal in the final minutes of the third period before sealing things with a pair of empty net goals.
“We were zipping it around on the power play and we wanted to get traffic in front and take the eyes away from (Greyhounds goaltender Landon) Miller there,” Richmond said.
Dean called the penalty that led to the goal “a tough one for us to take.”
Brampton got on the board first as Parker Von Richter beat Greyhounds goaltender Landon Miller with a point shot through traffic 1:38 into the game after a faceoff win by Lucas Karmiris.
The Steelheads made it a 2-0 game as Karmiris took a shot from the right faceoff circle that beat Miller stick side at 8:40.
The Greyhounds made it a 2-1 game in the final minute of the opening period as Marco Mignosa deflected a Chase Ried point shot past Brayden Gillespie.
With a man advantage, Brampton took a 3-1 lead as Mason Zebeski tipped a point shot from Finn Harding past Miller at 4:36 of the second period.
The Greyhounds again pulled to within one in the third period as Owen Allard took a breakaway pass from Noel Nordh and beat Gillespie 5-hole at 13:38.
The locals then tied the game at three as Mignosa took a shot from the slot that beat Gillespie stick side 1:59 later.
On the power play, the Steelheads took the lead for good with 3:13 to go in regulation time as Angus MacDonell deflected a shot by Porter Martone past Miller to make it a 4-3 game.
Carson Rehkopf and Adam Zidlicky capped off the scoring with empty net goals in the final minute of regulation time.
Brady Martin assisted on a pair of goals for the Greyhounds in the loss.
Miller made 25 saves.
Karmiris had a goal and an assist for the Steelheads in the win while Jakub Fibigr assisted on a pair of Brampton goals.
With the rest of the weekend off, the Greyhounds return to action on March 7 as the Team hosts the Barrie Colts before facing the Oshawa Generals the following night, also in Sault Ste. Marie, to cap off a seven game homestand.
The Greyhounds fall to 24-33-2-1 with the loss but sit seventh in the OHL’s Western Conference following play on Friday.
The team is one point ahead of the eighth seeded Sarnia Sting, who gained a point in the standings after dropping an overtime decision to the Kitchener Rangers in Kitchener on Friday. The Owen Sound Attack sit two points behind the Greyhounds after falling on the road to London on Friday as well.
Sarnia has two games in hand on the Greyhounds while Owen Sound has one game in hand.
Brampton improves to 29-20-9-0 with Friday’s win.
Goaltender Noah Tegelaar, who had spent the last seven games with the club in the absence of Nolan Lalonde due to injury, has been returned to the Ontario Junior League’s Collingwood Blues.
The Blues finish the OJHL regular season this weekend.
Greyhounds general manager Kyle Raftis confirmed that Tegelaar had been returned.
Noah Metivier joined the team for Friday’s game from the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Soo Thunderbirds.
Raftis also said Friday that Lalonde is skating and getting close to returning to the lineup.
Dean said the veteran netminder is “advancing through rehab” and said there was a “possibility” that Lalonde could play next weekend.