Mignosa making most of return to the lineup; Miller shines again

To say he was itching to get back into the lineup is an understatement.

Veteran Soo Greyhounds forward Marco Mignosa has certainly made the most of his return to the ice in his first three games of the Ontario Hockey League season.

The 19-year-old has five points in three games since returning to the Greyhounds lineup for the first time this season, including a three-point night on Wednesday in a 3-1 win over the Windsor Spitfires at the WFCU Centre.

“I missed it a lot. I was dying watching and I just wanted to play,” Mignosa said about missing the start to the season.

“My linemates have been great for me and finding me on the ice and I’ve been finding them,” Mignosa added.

For Greyhounds coach John Dean, Mignosa has brought a lot to the table early on in an impactful start.

“Marco’s brought poise, he’s brought calm,” Dean said. “He’s brought swagger on the bench when things get tough. He’s a voice of reason and calm.”

Mignosa called Wednesday’s win “huge.”

“To come in here and beat pretty much the best team in the league is a big confidence booster for our team,” Mignosa added.

Mignosa wasn’t the only player to factor into the result in a big way as goaltender Landon Miller followed up a strong performance on Friday night in a win over the Ottawa 67’s with a 31-save performance against the Spitfires.

Dean went as far as saying that Miller “stole that game.”

“It’s pretty obvious we stole that one,” Dean said. “The last 40 minutes were a real battle for us, specifically the second period, and Landon Miller, I don’t even know what words to describe how well he played tonight.”

Asked about his 15-save second period, Miller spoke of how he felt the need to “battle for my teammates.”

“We obviously didn’t have our best period,” Miller added. “To keep them in the game and give our team a chance to win is huge. That’s the goalie’s job to bare down and back your teammates up when things aren’t going that hot.”

“He pretty much kept us in that game,” Mignosa said of Miller.

Dean called the second period a lesson for the Greyhounds going forward.

“We anticipated a really hard push,” Dean said. “We responded with a very passive brand of hockey. We lost our structure. We also did not engage in any 50-50 battles at all and we looked like a team that lacks experience in tense situations against a very good hockey club.”

In addition to the play of Miller and Mignosa in the win, Dean called the opening period, which saw the visitors open up a 2-0 lead, “arguably our best period all season long.”

Dean added that it was the Greyhounds “most structured period, our most poised period.”

“We looked like a hockey club that had some swagger and confidence,” Dean added.

The Greyhounds wasted little time opening the scoring in the game.

Mignosa picked up his second goal of the season in the opening minute of the contest. Mignosa skated down the left wing and beat Spitfires goaltender Joey Costanzo with a shot from the left circle glove side 43 seconds in.

Mignosa added to the lead later in the period as he beat Costanzo with a one-timer from the slot off a feed from Owen Allard in the right circle at 8:12. The goal came after Noel Nordh grabbed a Windsor turnover.

After a scoreless second period, the Spitfires pulled to within one in the final period as Ilya Protas beat Miller on the power play. The import forward scored on a back-door pass through traffic from Liam Greentree in the right faceoff circle at 9:56.

Allard sealed the win with an empty net goal with 1:08 to go in the game.

Mignosa finished the night with two goals and an assist while Allard had one of each for the Greyhounds.

Costanzo made 18 saves for Windsor.

With the win, the Greyhounds have now won five straight games and improve to 8-5-0-0 on the season. The win by the Greyhounds also snapped a five-game winning streak for Windsor, who drops to 10-2-1-0 with the loss.

The Greyhounds three-game road trip continues on Friday night in London against the Knights before wrapping up the following night in Flint against the Firebirds before returning home for a midweek game against the Knights at the GFL Memorial Gardens.