In some ways, it was self-inflicted while some of the struggles could be attributed to the play of their opponent.
Having won back-to-back games entering action on Saturday night, the Soo Greyhounds dropped a 4-1 Ontario Hockey League decision to the Guelph Storm at the Sleeman Centre.
Looking to limit the Greyhounds speed, the Storm did just that and took advantage of a Greyhounds team that, as coach John Dean put it, “looked a little flat.”
“We knew before the game that they’re playing really well right now,” Dean said. “Their last three or four games, they’ve been really sharp, and they look really structured. Their goal was to slow us down in the neutral zone, but they’re also aggressive and make plays. We looked a little flat and give them a lot of credit, they executed their game very really well.”
“We have the structure and the talent to combat that way better than we did tonight,” said overage forward Cole MacKay.
“We weren’t coming back to the puck, and we weren’t helping our D out showing sticks,” MacKay also said. “We’ve got a lot better in that area of our game to show.”
The Greyhounds struggled to generate offence at times in the game, partly due to a struggle exiting their own zone.
“We wanted to play fast through our zone and chip pucks in behind their D, but we had a tough time exiting our zone, which ultimately meant we had a tough time entering theirs,” Dean said. “Our forechecks looked really disconnected because of it and we weren’t able to generate any pressure in their zone at all.”
MacKay also said the Storm were “a different looking group than we saw two weeks ago.”
“Really, there’s no excuse,” MacKay said. “We’ve also taken strides and believe that we can beat any team in the league. Give them credit, they’ve been progressing really nicely as a group. They caught us a little off guard. We’ve got to be able to play better against teams that are progressing faster.”
Storm coach George Burnett was pleased with the result.
"We're trying to earn a little bit of respect and I thought our team played pretty well tonight," Burnett said in an interview with GuelphToday. "It was a nice way to finish off a tough week.
"It's our first experience with three games in basically 48 hours plus a little bit of travel...we made a few mistakes and took too many penalties to allow their power play as many opportunities as we did, but we found a way to get through it."
Rookie defenceman Cam Allen opened the scoring for the Storm just over four minutes into the contest when he beat Greyhounds starter Samuel Ivanov with a shot from the right point stick side.
Holding a 1-0 lead, the Storm thought they extended the lead with just under six minutes to go in the second period when a shot from the left faceoff circle by Daniil Chayka hit the inside of the post glove side on Ivanov.
Guelph would take a 2-0 lead with 3:43 to go in the middle period when Matthew Poitras took a pass in the right circle from Jacob Maillet before beating Ivanov high short side with some traffic in close.
Rory Kerins got the Greyhounds on the board at 7:29 of the third with the teams playing four-on-four.
The veteran forward took a short pass in the right faceoff circle from Tye Kartye and beat Guelph starter Owen Bennett stick side to make the score 2-1.
With 4:53 to go in regulation time, Luca Profaca made it 3-1 Storm as he beat Ivanov with a shot stick side through traffic from the top of the right faceoff circle.
The Storm made life difficult at time for Ivanov, who made 26 saves.
“At this level, goals are scored in those dirty areas,” Dean said. “Every coach is telling their guys to get in front of the net and in those tough spots. Sammy was sensational tonight. He kept us in it. There’s always traffic and we’re trying to preach the same thing to our guys. Guelph did a good job. They got pucks to the net and got guys in front of Sammy for the goals that they did score.”
Bennett made 22 saves for the Storm.
In addition to scoring once on the power play, the Storm held the Greyhounds off the scoresheet in five power play attempts in the game.
“That was more a carryover of the flatness and lack of execution five-on-five,” Dean said. “Guelph did a good job on the PK, but as a group in general we lacked execution tonight. We lacked that extra step and it translated in all areas of the ice.”
Kerins added that the power play struggles weren’t connected to something specific Guelph did in the game.
“We didn’t execute,” Kerins said. “At the same time, we’re not going to be perfect every night on the power play. Five-on-five, we’ve got to step up and it didn’t happen.”
The loss drops the Greyhounds record to 7-4-0-0 while the Storm improve to 5-4-1-0.
The Greyhounds return to action on Wednesday night at home against the Saginaw Spirit before hosting the Storm for a pair of games next weekend on Friday and Saturday nights. Puck drop at the GFL Memorial Gardens for all three games is set for 7:07 p.m.