Greyhounds offence too much for Spirit (video, 7 photos)

The Soo Greyhounds have displayed the ability to break out offensively on more than one occasion this season and Wednesday night was one of those for the Ontario Hockey League club.

The team got multi-point games from eight different players Wednesday in an 8-4 win over the Saginaw Spirit at the GFL Memorial Gardens.

The Greyhounds scored twice in a span of 2:47 in the opening period, three times in a span of 3:26 in the third period and goals 13 seconds apart in the third en route to the win.

“We have the capability to explode for offence,” said Greyhounds coach John Dean. “I’d like to see us control the play a little more in the offensive zone. We’re definitely capable at any given moment of breaking out for two or three, which is always night.”

“It’s very explosive,” said Greyhounds defenceman Robert Calisti. “On any give night and even at a time in a game, we can get a couple of goals, that makes us very dangerous.”

Dean admitted that the team would “like to see a cleaner game” but the game had more positives in it for the team than negatives.

The game was looked at as a lesson for the Spirit.

“Our guys learnt a lot from the game,” said Saginaw coach Chris Lazary. “I liked the conversations (the players) were having on the bench about things that we’ve been talking about that we weren’t doing and stuff that you could see in the Sault game that we could pick up and add to our game.”

Rookie forward Tyler Savard opened the scoring for the Greyhounds when he beat a pair of Saginaw defencemen in the slot before beating Spirit goaltender Andrew Oke in tight midway through the opening period.

The Greyhounds went up by a pair after Calisti came out of the penalty box, took a feed from Luc Brzustowski and beat Oke on a breakaway with the Greyhounds still shorthanded.

Saginaw’s Roberto Mancini cut the Sault lead to 2-1 with 49.6 seconds to go in the opening period when he scored on a rebound after Greyhounds goaltender Samuel Ivanov made the initial stop on Dean Loukus on the play.

Just two minutes into the second period, Saginaw’s Nick Wong tied the game at two, beating Ivanov in tight.

Calisti gave the Greyhounds a 3-2 lead just over three minutes later when he jumped on a loose puck and beat Oke high from the slot.

Rookie Connor Toms made it 4-2 Greyhounds with his first OHL goal, beating Oke with a shot from the left faceoff circle.

Tye Kartye extended the Greyhounds lead to 5-2 with a power play goal 90 seconds after Toms’ goal.

After having a power play goal waved off, Saginaw cut the Greyhounds lead to 5-3 heading into the second intermission as Dalton Duhart deflected a point shot by Mitchell Smith past Ivanov with 1.8 seconds to go in the second period.

After killing off the remainder of a penalty to Ryan O’Rourke early in the third, the Greyhounds took a 7-3 lead midway through the third period thanks to goals by Owen Allard and Savard 13 seconds apart.

“It’s huge,” Calisti said of the stretch following Saginaw’s goal late in the second period. “Our penalty kill has been struggling a little bit, but it’s definitely a good momentum thing to kill it and work toward winning the game and putting up a couple of goals for us.”

Lazary said the feeling for the Spirit was an early power play goal in the third could have changed the game.

“We really thought that if we could come out and sting them really quick on the power play, it makes the game,” Lazary said. “It’s a game of execution. If we score there, it’s probably a different outcome, but at the end of the day, I like that ending the period with eight seconds left, our guys were excited and felt that they could score in that eight seconds. I liked the mindset.”

Saginaw defenceman Pacey Schlueting picked up his first goal of the season at 10:38 before Tanner Dickinson capped off the Greyhounds scoring with an empty net goal with 1:32 to go in the contest.

Calisti finished the night with two goals and an assist for the Greyhounds.

“Rob’s coming,” Dean said. “His last four or five games, he’s been really dominant on the ice and looking like the elite defenceman we know he can be.”

“I’m happy for him because he’s put in a lot of time over the last couple of weeks to make sure he’s consistent and playing the right way, and helping the young guys,” Dean added.

Kartye, Allard, and Dickinson added a goal and an assist each while Brzustowski, Rory Kerins, and Kirill Kudryavtsev assisted on two goals each for the Greyhounds.

Ivanov made 24 saves.

Oke made 22 saves for the Spirit.

Veteran Spirit goaltender Tristan Lennox missed the game due to injury.

Lazary said following Wednesday’s game that the netminder sat out as a precaution.

The Greyhounds return to action this weekend with a pair of games at home against the Guelph Storm.

The weekend set kicks off on Friday night at the GFL Memorial Gardens before wrapping up on Saturday night. Start time for both games is set for 7:07 p.m.