Greyhounds look to focus on positives in tight loss

There are games where you feel like you deserve a better fate and Friday night was one of them for the Soo Greyhounds.

In a game in which they out-shot their opponent by a wide margin and carried possession time, the Greyhounds dropped a low-scoring 2-1 game to the Ottawa 67’s in Ontario Hockey League action at the GFL Memorial Gardens on Friday night.

On the heels of a win Monday afternoon in Windsor in which they likely didn’t play well enough to win, but still picked up two points, Friday’s game had the opposite feel for the team.

“We deserved better tonight,” said Greyhounds forward Owen Allard.

Following the loss, Greyhounds coach John Dean said: “I hope these guys know how proud I am, because I thought they played a really good game.”

“I liked our game,” Dean added. “We played a good game. I really liked our O-zone time. I liked our compete, I liked our effort. There’s things inside the game that we can definitely improve on and be better at, but you can’t argue with that game.”

Dean said this game was the first time this season that the coaching staff “saw our guys holding their sticks tight.”

“It’s the first time all year we looked timid with the puck and nervous,” Dean added. “We score that five-on-three goal and it’s five skill players making a skill play.”

Dean said another key point in the game was the Greyhounds inability to score on a five-minute power play shortly after scoring on a two-man advantage.

“If there’s a letdown, it’s the (major penalty),” Dean said.

“We have to follow that up and at least build some momentum with the next unit,” Dean added. “The momentum swung their way because, for three-and-a-half minutes, (Ottawa) looked like they might have been on the power play.”

Asked what he felt needed work from the game, Dean said “our net front game was not good,”

“We generated a lot of pucks to paint, but I didn’t think we boxed out a lot (in the offensive zone),” Dean said.

“There was a lot of rebounds there to be had and got on top of,” Dean added. “We might have over-passed the puck in the offensive zone. I was happy with the zone time, but there was opportunity to put pucks off the pad and get chances that way.”

For the 67’s, goaltender Collin MacKenzie was also a difference in the game, stopping 32 shots in the victory.

“(MacKenzie) was real solid,” Ottawa coach Dave Cameron said. “He was good last night in North Bay. We needed him a little more tonight. He rose to the occasion and was a big part of the win.”

While there are some areas to clean up in their game, Cameron said he felt the 67’s played “a real solid road game.”

“I didn’t like our execution,” Cameron added. “There were too many bad passes that stalled our breakouts, stalled our offence, but we battled. We spent too much time in our own zone, but we didn’t give up a ton.”

Cameron also said positional play and poise defensively were important for the 67’s in the win.

After a scoreless opening period, Ottawa opened the scoring in the second period on a goal by Will Gerrior.

Gerrior got the puck in the slot and beat Greyhounds goaltender Charlie Schenkel 5-hole 41 seconds into the middle stanza.

Gerrior picked up his second of the night at 13:11. The veteran forward took a pass in the slot from Frankie Marrelli and beat Schenkel 5-hole to extend the lead.

The Greyhounds pulled to within one on the power play early in the third period as defenceman Arttu Karki beat MacKenzie with a one-timer from the lower right circle on a pass from Jack Beck with the Greyhounds on a two-man advantage.

For the Greyhounds, Schenkel made 17 saves in the loss.

Dean agreed that both goals were on shots that Schenkel would likely want back.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to win a tight game and that everyone’s got to be on,” Dean said. “There were some mistakes up front, there were some mistakes on the back and some mistakes between the pipes.

“If we’re going to win tight games like that where we compete and play well, we’re going to need some big saves,” Dean also said.

Allard said the veteran netminder was good enough for the team to pick up a win.

“You can’t stop them all,” Allard said. “Nobody’s perfect. He played well enough for us to win.”

On the Ottawa side, Sault native Cooper Foster picked up an assist for the 67’s.

“He’s a big part of our team, but he’s got another gear though,” Cameron said of the Sault product. “I don’t think through the first five games we’ve seen the best of Coop, but he’s a bit part of our team and a real good player.”

The loss drops the Greyhounds record to 5-2-0-0 heading into action on Saturday night at home when the team takes on the Owen Sound Attack in a 7:07 p.m. start at the GFL Memorial Gardens.

Ottawa improves to 3-2-0-0 with the victory.