They fell behind early and their response wasn’t nearly what they hoped for to get back into the game.
The Saginaw Spirit opened up a 3-0 lead through 20 minutes en route to a 4-1 Ontario Hockey League win over the Soo Greyhounds Wednesday night at the Dow Event Center in Saginaw.
It was a game in which the team had chances early on, but it was the Spirit who capitalized early and never looked back.
Greyhounds coach John Dean spoke of being disappointed with the response after the team fell behind in the opening period.
“I really didn’t like our second and third periods,” Dean said. “I didn’t like the way we responded. It was a tough night all around.”
“We had our chances definitely and we didn’t capitalize,” added Greyhounds defenceman Ryan O’Rourke. “For most of the game, we got definitely got outworked and out-forechecked.”
Despite giving up three goals in the period, Dean said he felt the team was “great.”
“We generated a lot of chances,” Dean said. “We got two tough goals against and one missed assignment, but for the most part, other than taking a couple of penalties, it’s exactly how we want to play. We played hard and created opportunities.”
O’Rourke added that he felt the team needed “to bring what we had in the first for all three periods.”
Dean credited the Spirit as well.
“That team over there works really hard and smelled an opportunity to beat a good team,” Dean said.
“There are some things in our game that we haven’t liked, but we needed to do tonight to beat a good team,” Saginaw coach Chris Lazary said in the Spirit television broadcast following the game. “We talked about it in our pre-game meeting, and we’ve talked about it in the last handful of meetings leading up to this game about little things we needed to do to be a winning team every night. The guys are embracing the message because they want to win.
The Spirit opened the scoring 94 seconds into the contest when Dean Loukus took a pass in the right faceoff circle from Nick Wong and beat Greyhounds goaltender Samuel Ivanov high short side.
Saginaw went up by a pair when Josh Bloom took a pass in behind the Greyhounds defencemen from Mitchell Smith and beat Ivanov stick side on a breakaway at 8:03.
Roberto Mancini made it 3-0 Saginaw late in the opening period when the puck ended up on his stick in tight and he found a hole to beat Ivanov with 1L18 to go in the frame.
After a scoreless second period, the Greyhounds got on the board in the third.
After an offensive zone turnover by the Spirit, the Greyhounds went in on a three-on-one and Tye Kartye hit Tanner Dickinson going to the net, who proceeded to deke Andrew Oke to the glove side to make it 3-1 at 5:40.
Sault product Calem Mangone made it 4-1 Spirit with 6:12 to go in regulation time. The puck got to Mangone after Greyhounds defenceman Kirill Kudryavtsev couldn’t handle a pass in the Greyhounds zone. Mangone took the puck from the left circle to the net before beating Ivanov with a backhand in close.
Oke was a surprise starter in the game for the Spirit at the team had initially planned to start veteran Tristan Lenox.
Lazary said following the game that Lennox “tweaked his groin in warmup and didn’t feel like he should be going.”
Oke would make 30 saves for the Spirit.
Ivanov made 30 at the other end of the ice for the Greyhounds.
“I think he probably wants two of the first three back,” Dean said of the rookie netminder. “There’s an opportunity there for him to get off to a bit better start, but the last 40, he was fantastic.”
The Greyhounds return to action on Sunday afternoon at home when they host the Erie Otters. Puck drop at the GFL Memorial Gardens is set for 2:07 p.m.