Some timely saves early and a three-goal opening period helped the Soo Greyhounds take advantage of a short-staffed Oshawa Generals team on Saturday night.
The Greyhounds rode an early lead to a 7-2 Ontario Hockey League win over the Generals Saturday at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
For the Greyhounds, coach John Dean saw the game as the team getting rewarded.
“Over this skid here, we’ve played some pretty good hockey and we haven’t got rewarded,” Dean said. “We gave up way too many chances tonight, but the hockey gods rewarded us. I’m really happy for the boys.”
Dean was pleased with the Greyhounds opening period in which the team scored three times and capitalized on opportunities.
“The first goal, we catch them on a pretty clean breakout for an unbelievable goal by Jordan (D’Intino) and the next two goals were a direct result of us tracking back extremely hard against their four-man rush and countering the other way,” Dean said.
Greyhounds forward Marco Mignosa said the first period goals were “like a snowball effect.”
“We played all over the ice,” Mignosa said. “We played well in all three zones, and we ended up scoring goals. It carries over.”
For Oshawa coach Derek Laxdal, the short-staffed Generals weren’t in the game throughout.
“It wasn’t even a contest tonight,” Laxdal said. “It was just a points-fest for them tonight.”
“We probably needed a performance in net tonight to get us through. A few of the goals were soft,” Laxdal also said, adding that turnovers early were also an issue.
Already without defencemen Thomas Stewart and Nikita Parfenyuk and forward Jordyn Ertel, the Generals lost four players - defenceman Luca Marrelli, and forwards Beckett Sennecke, Ryan Gagnier, and Callum Ritchie - in Friday's loss in Sudbury.
Dean called goaltender Samuel Ivanov “the best player on the ice tonight.”
“He showed a lot of jam in the third period,” Dean added, referring to a post-whistle scrum in which the Greyhounds netminder skated to centre ice and called out Generals goaltender Jacob Oster.
“What a way to tell your coach to stick it,” Dean also said. “What a way to tell your coach what a mistake he’s made and then goes to bat for his teammates during a scrum.”
Dean also called the game “a pretty special performance by Samuel.”
Dean said the performance, which saw Ivanov stop 32 shots, earned the sophomore goaltender another start down the road.
The Greyhounds opened the scoring when Jordan D’Intino took a pass in the neutral zone from Bryce McConnell-Barker, skated into the Oshawa zone and beat Oster stick side from the right circle at 7:10.
Julian Fantino made it a 2-0 game when he skated down the left wing and beat Oster from the left circle high short side moments after an Oshawa turnover in the neutral zone at 12:51.
Kalvyn Watson made it 3-0 Greyhounds when he took a turnover on the left wing in the Oshawa zone, circled into the slot, and beat Oster glove side at 14:01
Christopher Brown made it 4-0 Greyhounds in the second period when he drove the net and redirected a pass from Matthew Virgilio on the right wing past Oster at 2:14.
Oshawa got on the board later in the period when Tyler Graham stepped into a turnover by Caleb Van De Ven and beat Samuel Ivanov high glove side from the slot at 11:47.
Owen Allard picked up his first goal of the season in the third period as he scored on a loose puck in tight after Mignosa’s initial shot didn’t get through to the goal at 7:40.
Connor Toms made it a 6-1 game 1:39 later when he scored from the left circle after Watson’s initial shot from the right circle was wide and redirected into the other circle.
Just 1:23 later, Justin Cloutier made it 7-1 as he jumped on a loose puck in the slot and beat Oster after Mark Duarte tried to centre the puck and it deflected off an Oshawa skate and Brenden Sirizzotti got the puck into the slot.
Ryder McIntyre made it a 7-2 game with 3:21 to go in regulation time when he beat Ivanov from the right circle on the power play stick side.
Mignosa finished the night with three assists for the Greyhounds.
Fantino, Watson, and D’Intino added a goal and an assist each for the Greyhounds while Virgilio assisted on a pair of goals.
Oster stopped 40 shots for the Generals.
The Greyhounds return to action on Wednesday night when they wrap up a four-game homestand with a game against the Sudbury Wolves.
With the win, the Greyhounds improve to 18-27-9-6. The team remains nine points back of the Kitchener Rangers for the final playoff spot in the OHL’s Western Conference after the Rangers picked up a 3-0 win in Owen Sound on Saturday night.
Meanwhile, Oshawa falls to 24-29-1-5 with the loss and sits three points ahead of the Kingston Frontenacs for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.