Greyhounds penalty kill takes bite out of Bulldogs

The concern of late had been their inability to put together a full game.

That wasn’t the issue on Friday night.

After dropping an overtime decision in Erie on Thursday night, the Soo Greyhounds rebounded on Friday by picking up an 8-2 Ontario Hockey League victory over the Brantford Bulldogs in Brantford.

Greyhounds coach John Dean was critical of his team following Thursday’s loss but called Friday’s win “probably our second sixty-minute game of the year.”

“(It was) a really solid sixty minutes from all twenty guys,” Dean added. “We talked about it quite a bit after the Erie game that it feels like we’re trending in the wrong way with peaks and valleys inside of games and tonight was mostly peaks.”

The Greyhounds penalty kill came through in the game as well, holding Brantford off the scoreboard on four man advantage opportunities, which included killing off a major penalty to Julian Fantino in the second period.

Additionally, the Greyhounds scored a pair of shorthanded goals in the win.

“That gave us a lot of momentum tonight with two shorthanded goals by Jordan D’Intino, some huge saves from Landon Miller,” Dean said.

Dean called the shorthanded goals, which came back-to-back, “huge.”

“We were carrying play and then they get two power plays that obviously can really change the complexion of the game,” Dean said.

D’Intino said scoring shorthanded goals has an added feel over even strength markers.

“I feel like I get a lot of chances shorthanded,” D’Intino said. “It’s kind of the way (assistant coach Brendan Taylor) draws it up for us and lets us play. It gives us an offensive ability at the same time. It’s always nice to get those chances and I have been getting quite a few breakaways, so to finally bare down and bury two feels nice.”

Veteran forward Marco Mignosa, who assisted on both shorthanded goals by D’Intino, spoke of the aggressiveness the Greyhounds showed on the plays,

“It starts with Brenden Taylor, our PK coach, telling us what to do and to be a super aggressive forecheck out there,” Mignosa said. “It paid off tonight. We were targeting their D while they carried it out and it worked out.”

In addition to the penalty kill, Dean said there was a “laundry list” of things his team did well in the win, including the way they managed the puck and not changing their style of play as the score got out of hand.

The Greyhounds opened the scoring midway through the first period as Owen Allard won a faceoff back to Mignosa, who proceeded to beat Bulldogs goaltender David Egorov high short side at 10:43.

Brantford tied the game at 15:38 when Cole Brown beat Greyhounds goaltender Landon Miller from the right faceoff circle high stick side on a one-timer after a cross-ice pass from Marek Vanacker.

D’Intino made it a 2-1 game with 1:57 to go in the opening period when he beat Egorov on a shorthanded breakaway.

The overage forward grabbed his second shorthanded goal of the night 2:42 into the second period when he deked Egorov in tight after taking a pass from Mignosa. Mignosa started the play by forcing a turnover by Bulldogs defenceman Jorian Donovan.

Brantford pulled back to within one when Noah Nelson deflected a shot in the left faceoff circle by Callum Cheynowski at the left point past Miller 1:13 later.

The Greyhounds took a 4-2 lead when Jack Beck tried to hit Brady Martin with a pass near the goal. The pass deflected past Egorov off Noah Roberts to extend the Sault lead at 6:48.

After a turnover in the Brantford zone, the Greyhounds took a 5-2 lead when Justin Cloutier went to the net and redirected a pass from Kudryavtsev past Egorov 2:22 into the third period.

The Greyhounds made it a 6-2 game later in the period when Owen Allard one-timed a pass in the slot from Mignosa in the left circle 5-hole on Egorov at 14:25.

Arttu Karki extended the lead further 1:41 later as he beat Egorov with a shot from the right faceoff circle short side on the power play.

Travis Hayes capped off the scoring with 1:15 to go as he deflected a sharp angle pass from the right side boards by Brenden Sirizzotti.

Mignosa paced the Greyhounds offensively with a goal and three assists in the victory.

D’Intino had a three-point night with a pair of goals and an assist while Cloutier also had three points on the strength of a goal and two assists.

Beck and Allard added one of each for the Greyhounds.

In goal, Miller made 24 saves in the victory.

Egorov made 23 saves for the Bulldogs in the loss.

The Greyhounds wrap up the weekend on Sunday afternoon in Mississauga with a game against the Steelheads. The four-game stretch on the road concludes for the team on Wednesday night in Saginaw against the Spirit.

The team will then play four of five at home, beginning next Friday with a return match against the Spirit.

With the win, the Greyhounds improve to 14-7-2-0 on the season and move five points ahead of the Spirit for the West Division lead though the Spirit have three games in hand.

The Greyhounds remain in second in the OHL’s Western Conference and pull to within four points of the conference-leading Kitchener Rangers, who lost at home to Owen Sound on Friday night.

The loss drops Brantford’s record to 10-8-3-1 on the season. The team currently sits second in the East Division, four points behind the Peterborough Petes, who also lost on Friday.