Late-game heroics lift Greyhounds to road win

They expected better than the performance in the opener of their three-game road trip.

In the end, it wasn’t pretty, but the Soo Greyhounds found away to get two points.

That way was a goal by Connor Clattenburg with 10 seconds to go in regulation time to give the Greyhounds a 5-4 victory over the Niagara IceDogs at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines in Ontario Hockey League action on Saturday night.

“The boys had heart,” Clattenburg said following the victory. “It was dirty, but we did it.”

Greyhounds assistant coach Brendan Taylor spoke of how a win like Saturday’s can be “the mark of a good team.”

Taylor said the Greyhounds ability to stick with it in a game that wasn’t perfect was important.

“We’ll be thankful for those two points later on,” Taylor added.

Taylor agreed that after Niagara tied the game in the third period, the IceDogs carried the play for a stretch. Taylor added that he was pleased with the Greyhounds “bend, but don’t break” ability during the stretch.

“They did a good job of maintaining that momentum,” Taylor said. “Their crowd got into it and we had some defensive zone shifts that were unnecessarily long and scrambly. We got running around and they were taking it to us with the momentum.”

Niagara got on the board first when Evan Klein beat Greyhounds goaltender Landon Miller with a shot from the right circle 3:40 into the game.

The Greyhounds tied the game when Owen Allard took a pass from Marco Mignosa and beat Niagara goaltender Marcus Vandenberg from the left circle at 14:13 after a turnover by the IceDogs at the other end of the ice.

A turnover by Greyhounds defenceman Kirill Kudryavtsev later in the period proved costly as Niagara capitalized. The Greyhounds blueliner turned the puck over at the Niagara blueline on the power play and Ivan Galiyanov proceeded to beat Miller on the ensuing shorthanded break at 16:22.

The IceDogs took a 3-1 lead into the dressing room after one period thanks to a goal by Kevin He 1:16 later. The IceDogs forward beat Andrew Gibson down the left wing, cut in from the faceoff circle and beat Miller with a backhand.

The Greyhounds pulled to within one in the second period when Julian Fantino grabbed a rebound of a point shot by Gibson that was stopped and beat Vandenberg from the left circle just 25 seconds into the period.

The visitors then tied the game when Connor Clattenburg forced a Niagara turnover deep in the IceDogs zone and then took a pass from Justin Cloutier after getting in behind a Niagara defenceman and beat Vandenberg to knot the game up at 3:54. The goal also ended Vandenberg’s night in goal.

The Greyhounds capitalized on a power play later in the period, two seconds into the man advantage in fact, as Arttu Karki beat new IceDogs goaltender Owen Flores with a one-timer from the top of the right circle with 1:29 to go in the period.

Klein picked up his second of the night, beating Miller from in close stick side to tie the game at four at 5:48 of the third.

The Greyhounds then capped off the dramatic win as Clattenburg deflected a point shot by Kudryavtsev past Flores 5-hole with 10 seconds to go in regulation time to give the Greyhounds the win.

“I hopped on, there was a little bit of time left, the boys had it down low and I was behind the net, came around, I had to push through a defenceman,” Clattenburg said of the winner. “Kirill’s a great spotter. He put it in the right spot and I just tipped it down.”

In addition to the two-goal night from Clattenburg, Mignosa assisted on a pair of Sault goals in the win.

Miller made 20 saves for the visitors.

Galiyanov finished the night with a goal and two assists while He had one of each for the IceDogs.

Vandenberg stopped 13 of 16 Greyhounds shots before being pulled. Flores stopped 18 of 20 shots the rest of the way in just under 36 minutes of work.

The Greyhounds wrap up the weekend with a game on Sunday afternoon in Kitchener against the Rangers. The game is a battle between two of the Western Conference’s top teams.

“We have to show how good we are,” Clattenburg said.

Taylor called the game “a good measuring stick for both teams.”

With Saturday’s win, the Greyhounds improve to 12-6-0-0. Niagara falls to 3-9-4-1 with the loss