Greyhounds rebound in matchup with Eastern Conference foe

As the Ontario Hockey League regular season nears the Christmas break and the halfway point of the schedule for many teams, the Soo Greyhounds remain in the hunt as one of the Western Conference’s top teams.

The team continued a busy stretch of action on Saturday night with an important victory on home ice.

Just 24 hours after a game in which special teams played a role in a loss, the Greyhounds picked up a power play goal and shorthanded marker in a 4-1 win over the Barrie Colts Saturday night at the GFL Memorial Gardens.

Greyhounds coach John Dean expressed his pleasure with a strong start after a tough outing one day earlier.

“We had a good period. Obviously, guys reflected on yesterday’s loss and didn’t feel very good about it,” Dean said of the opening period in the win over the Colts. “The fact that we had that much energy in our legs after this past two weeks is pretty impressive.”

Dean said the second period saw the Greyhounds get away from what was making them successful in the opening 20 minutes.

“We started turning over pucks, lost stick battles instead of being physical,” Dean said.

Dean added that he felt players were cheating.

“Just small cheats on the wrong side of the puck,” Dean said. “I was really happy that we got back to our game in the third period for the most part.”

“We had a great start, but we dipped down in the second period and got off our game,” added forward Alex Kostov. “The third period, everyone decided to come together and play our style of hockey.”

Barrie coach Marty Williamson was pleased with how his team rebounded after a tough opening period.

“We settled in the second and got more focused on just battles within the structure instead of being wild,” Williamson said. “(The Greyhounds) move the puck well. They’re a good team. Those four D really dictate the pace for them, and their transition game is very good.”

Williamson also called a shorthanded goal by Kostov early in the second period a difference in the game.

“That shorthanded goal was a backbreaker for us,” Williamson said. “We had two guys wave at the guy and let him come in and take that wrist shot that got it to 3-1. For us not scoring a ton, that’s a big hill to climb.”

Barrie opened the scoring in the game as Roenick Jodoin took a breakaway pass from Chris Grisolia and beat Greyhounds goaltender Landon Miller with a backhand high stick side at 6:37 of the opening period.

The Greyhounds tied the game 1:02 later as Connor Clattenburg took a pass in tight from Christopher Brown and beat Barrie goaltender Sam Hillebrandt. 

On the power play, the Greyhounds took a 2-1 lead as Arttu Karki took a pass in the right faceoff circle and beat Hillebrandt at 15:49.

The Greyhounds took a 3-1 lead when Marco Mignosa circled from the left wing and skated into the slot, taking a shot Hillebrandt glove side after getting deflected by Kostov 3:20 into the period. The goal came with the Greyhounds shorthanded.

Bryce McConnell-Barker made it 4-1 in the third period as he skated into the Barrie zone and cut in before beating Hillebrandt at 12:11 of the third.

McConnell-Barker and Karki finished the night with a goal and an assist each for the Greyhounds.

With his goal in the second period, Kostov has goals in three of his last four games and points in all four contests.

“I’ve just been thinking about my own game and what I can do to improve,” Kostov said of the recent stretch. “That really helped me on just focusing on my game and dialing it down and just what I have to do, not necessarily scoring, but help the team.”

Miller made 34 saves.

“He was very calm and poised and quiet,” Dean said of the rookie netminder. “A lot of great goalie touches. When you give your team confidence, it allows you to play with more freedom and you could see that with the puck on our guys sticks tonight. We looked a lot more creative than we have in the last two games.”

Williamson called Miller “outstanding.”

Hillebrandt made 34 stops for Barrie in the loss.

The Greyhounds are on the road for a Wednesday night game in Sudbury before returning home next weekend for games against the Kingston Frontenacs on Friday night and the London Knights on Sunday afternoon.

The Greyhounds take a record of 17-9-2-0 into Wednesday’s game and continue to hold a three-point lead over the Saginaw Spirit atop the OHL’s West Division after the Spirit also won on Saturday night. The Spirit, who beat the Knights 7-5 in Saginaw, have two games in hand on the Greyhounds and are slated to face the Knights on Dec. 8 in London in their next game.

The Greyhounds sit three points behind the Kitchener Rangers for top spot in the Western Conference after the Rangers were off on Saturday night.

Barrie falls to 11-13-0-0 and sit fourth in the Central Division, five points behind Sudbury.