The Soo Greyhounds don’t play on the road much in the month of February but the team got off to a good start on Wednesday night.
Thanks to four goals in the final 40 minutes, the Greyhounds picked up a 5-2 Ontario Hockey League victory over the Saginaw Spirit on Wednesday night at the Dow Event Center in Saginaw.
“We did a lot of good things,” said Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister. “Towards the second half of the first period we started to take over and spend a lot more time in the offensive zone. In the second period, we were really good and we didn’t give up anything.”
Bannister spoke further to the second period, calling in one of the Greyhounds “better periods we’ve had in a little while.”
“We had a lot of quality opportunities and we put a lot of pucks to the net,” said Bannister. “We had the puck for a lot of the period and we were able to score on our opportunities and we were able to draw penalties off of it.”
Bobby MacIntyre broke a personal nine-game goalless drought with a pair of goals while also picking up an assist for the Greyhounds.
“It’s always nice to help your team win by getting goals or getting an assist,” MacIntyre said.
“Last weekend against Windsor and even against Peterborough I thought I played decent,” MacIntyre said. “I knew it was coming, it was just a matter of time before I got back in the groove.”
Morgan Frost and David Miller added a goal and an assist each for the Greyhounds while Blake Speers also picked up a goal. Conor Timmins assisted on a pair of goals, including Frost’s. For Frost, the sophomore forwards had goals in his past two games after not scoring in 17 games.
Frost said the slump was “frustrating.”
“Once it got to a certain point it was frustrating,” Frost said. “It was nice to get the monkey off my back against Windsor and that gave me a little more confidence going into the prospects game. Hopefully I can keep it going now.”
Frost spoke of the pass Timmins made on the goal, which was the game-winner.
“That was a great offensive zone shift and we were in their end for a little while,” Frost said. “He could have easily shot but he made a great play.”
Rookie netminder Matthew Villalta made 22 saves for the Greyhounds to improve his record to 13-1-0-0, which includes wins in all three appearances against the Spirit this season and 13 wins in a row after losing his first start on the opening weekend of the regular season.
“Matthew played well,” Bannister said. “He made the saves we needed him to.”
“He was really sharp,” Bannister added. “He played the puck fairly well. He was calm in the net. He had to make a couple of saves for us, which he did. His rebound control was really good.”
The Greyhounds, who improve to 22-5-0-0 on the road, record stands at 34-12-2-1 as the team takes a four-point lead over the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL’s West Division though the Spitfires have a game in hand, which will be played on Thursday night at home against Saginaw.
The Greyhounds remain in second in the Western Conference, two points behind the London Knights, who also won on Wednesday night.
Saginaw, in a battle with the Flint Firebirds for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, fall to 19-22-6-2 and remain two points behind Flint.
The Greyhounds will return to action on Saturday night in Sudbury in a 7 p.m. start against the Wolves before moving on to North Bay to face the Battalion in a 2 p.m. start. The games mark the end of road action for the Greyhounds in the month of February. The team will play eight-straight at home following Sunday’s game in North Bay.
Bannister said the plan is to have Joseph Raaymakers start in Sudbury before going back to Villalta in North Bay.
Game Notes: Prior to puck drop, the Spirit retired the jersey of forward Vincent Trocheck. The current Florida Panthers forward spent four seasons with the Spirit from 2009 to 2013 and his is the first jersey number retired by the Spirit.
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OTHER SCORES
In London, six different players had goals as the London Knights beat the Kitchener Rangers 6-1. Evan Bouchard had a goal and an assist for the Knights. Nicolas Mattinen, Liam Foudy, Sam Miletic, Max Jones and Dante Salituro also scored for London. Mitch Vande Sompel assisted on a pair of London goals. Jonathan Yantsis had the lone goal for the Rangers.