A lot of eyes have been on Brady Martin this season with the Soo Greyhounds.
With injuries playing a role, his linemates have changed at times, but the young forward has found some added chemistry with fellow sophomore forward Travis Hayes and veteran forward Justin Cloutier.
“We had a bunch of injuries (as a team) so it was tough to put us together, but now we’re slowly starting to get our guys back. Us three together is a powerhouse line,” Martin said. “We all work our tails off. We’re all dogs on a bone. We’re savages out there.”
The connection wasn’t unnoticed by Greyhounds coach John Dean.
“Travis Hayes and him have an unbelievable connection,” Dean said. “They work hard for each other. They go to war for each other on the ice and they have a little bit of a sixth sense for each other. Then you add in Justin Cloutier into that. He’s very similar to both those guys.”
Martin scored the overtime winner on Wednesday night as the Greyhounds picked up a 4-3 win over the Erie Otters at the GFL Memorial Gardens. Martin paced the Greyhounds with three goals in the victory.
“It feels great, one of my best games obviously,” Martin said. “My linemates helped me too along the way. I’m playing with good players.”
“I started doubling him early and he forced my hand,” Dean said of Martin. “It’s one of those nights where you’re not not going to put him on the ice.”
Dean went on to call Martin “the best player on the ice by far.”
“I’m more proud of how dialed he was in details,” Dean added, calling it “a very complete game.”
Dean called Wednesday’s win “the best game we’ve played all year by far.”
“It’s not even close,” Dean added. “That’s the first game all season where I feel like we established a clear identity – a fast-paced game, hunt pucks, play a half-ice game, compete whistle to whistle, defended hard, created offence.”
“And you could sense it in the energy in the room,” Dean also said. “When you earn a win, you start to feel that juice. The juice was in the room tonight.”
Erie coach Stan Butler said the Greyhounds outworked the Otters in the game.
“They outworked us from the drop of the puck,” Butler said. “They just were better in every part of the game than we were tonight.”
Butler added that he felt his team wasn’t sharp in the game, adding that Dean had the Greyhounds well prepared for the Otters.
“(The Greyhounds) were really good tonight,” Butler said. “They worked hard, activated their D down the walls. Our wingers really struggled with that all night. We’re usually a fast team, but tonight, they were a lot faster than us.”
The Greyhounds opened the scoring 3:49 into the game as Brady Martin beat Erie goaltender Noah Erliden with a shot from the right faceoff circle.
Erie tied the game at one with 5:38 to go in the opening period as Alexis Daviault took a shot from the slot that beat Charlie Schenkel stick side and rang off the post before crossing the line up under the crossbar before hitting the other post.
The Greyhounds took a 2-1 lead as Noel Nordh stepped out from below the goalline and beat Erliden with a shot 5-hole just as a Sault power play expired at 8:05 of the second period.
Erie again tied the game after a turnover defensively by the Greyhounds. Carey Terrance took the turnover and got the puck to Dylan Edwards in the left faceoff circle. Edwards proceeded to beat Schenkel stick side on the power play at 10:01.
Erie then took a 3-2 lead as Matthew Schaefer took a breakaway pass from Gabriel Frasca and beat Schenkel with a deke to the stick side in the final minute of the period to give the Otters the lead heading into the third period.
The Greyhounds tied the game 30 seconds into the third as Martin picked up his second goal of the night. The second year forward beat Erliden on a one-timer from the left circle off a pass from Marco Mignosa.
Martin capped off the win 14 seconds into the extra frame as he got the puck from Andrew Gibson, skated into the Erie zone and had his shot deflect off the stick of Schaeffer and past Erliden.
“The top corner was where I was shooting,” Martin said. “The goalie wasn’t expecting a changeup there.”
“I liked the way Brady controlled the pace of the puck,” Dean said of the play. “You have to control gap on three-on-three hockey. He slows down through the neutral zone and that gives him an opportunity to exploit a gap and get a little space on the way in.”
Nordh had a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds on Wednesday while Mignosa and Cloutier assisted on a pair of goals each.
Schenkel stopped 25 shots for the Sault.
Frasca assisted on a pair of goals for Erie in the loss.
Erliden made 27 saves.
The Greyhounds return to action on Friday night at home with a game against the Flint Firebirds before facing the Windsor Spitfires on Sunday afternoon, also at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
With Wednesday’s win, the Greyhounds improve to 11-8-0-0 on the season.
Erie falls to 10-5-2-1 with the loss.