Looking to build on a three-game winning streak that continued a stretch in which they’ve been happy with their play for the most part, it was a struggle from start to finish on Friday for the Soo Greyhounds.
There was very little to like as the Greyhounds dropped a 7-2 Ontario Hockey League decision on Friday night at the Tribute Communities Centre against the Oshawa Generals.
The Greyhounds fell behind 3-0 in the opening period and weren’t able to get back into the game at any point.
Veteran forward Jordan D’Intino called the loss “unacceptable.”
“There are no excuses,” D’Intino also said. “We have to be better. Everyone knows we have better.”
The game was a stark contrast from the one played 24 hours earlier in North Bay that saw the team skate away with a shootout win.
“We looked very flat,” said Greyhounds coach John Dean on Friday’s loss. “We didn’t have a lot of push back. We had a really tough first period and never really recovered.”
Asked specifically about the opening period Dean said his team looked tired.
“When you’re tired, you have to stay structured; your structure saves you,” Dean said. “We looked tired and played outside of our structure. There wasn’t any crutch for us to lean on.”
The struggles were on both sides of the puck for the Greyhounds in the loss.
“I don’t think we generated very much in the O zone, and we gave up a lot of Grade A chances,” forward Bryce McConnell-Barker said. “It just wasn’t a great game overall.”
Oshawa opened the scoring when overage forward Cameron Butler scored his ninth of the year at 7:16. The veteran forward made a quick move to create some room on Greyhounds defenceman Caeden Carlisle and took a shot that fluttered in on goal and wasn’t played cleanly by Sault goaltender Samuel Ivanov.
Beckett Sennecke made it 2-0 Generals at 11:50 when he took a pass from defenceman Lleyton Moore and moved in on a breakaway before beating Ivanov with a backhand stick side.
The Generals took a 3-0 lead when Stuart Rolofs beat Ivanov glove side from the left circle at 15:09.
Oshawa took a 4-0 lead with 1:45 to go in the second period when Rolofs picked up his second of the night. With Oshawa on the power play, the veteran forward has his initial shot from the left faceoff circle blocks. Rolofs corralled the puck and then beat Ivanov on the second chance.
With 2.1 seconds to go in the period, Sennecke got his second goal of the night as well as he deflected a shot by Luca Marrelli past Ivanov, ending the night for the Sault netminder as rookie Landon Miller took over between the pipes for the third period.
D’Intino got the Greyhounds on the board at 3:35 of the third period when he beat Oshawa goaltender Patrick Leaver with a one-timer from the slot on a pass from Kirill Kudryavtsev.
Just 1:07 later, the Generals answered as Calum Ritchie took a pass in the slot from Butler and beat Miller in the Sault goal glove side.
Brett Harrison made it a 7-1 game at 14:44 when he went to the net, took a pass from Ritchie and slide a backhand past Miller.
Christopher Brown beat Leaver with a backhand in close after a centering pass from Alex Kostov hit a leg on its way to the slot and ended up on the stick of Brown. The goal came 46 seconds after Harrison’s marker.
Ivanov stopped 21 shots in two periods of work before making way for Miller, who was making his OHL debut. Miller made nine saves on 11 shots in the final 20 minutes.
Rolofs finished the night with two goals and an assist while Butler had a goal and a pair of helpers for the Generals. Marrelli also had a three-point night for Oshawa with three assists.
Ritchie and Harrison had a goal and an assist each for the Generals.
The two-goal night from Sennecke and two-assist night from Moore meant seven Generals players had multi-point nights in the victory.
Leaver stopped 21 shots.
The Greyhounds, who fall to 9-11-4-4 with the loss, will wrap up the weekend trip on Sunday afternoon in Owen Sound against the Attack. The two teams met last weekend in the Sault when the Greyhounds skated to a 5-3 win at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
D’Intino called the Owen Sound game an important one.
“We’re going to take the day off here and regroup and put (Friday’s loss) behind us,” D’Intino said. “It’s an unacceptable night and we know that. We have to be better and hold everyone accountable.”
Pleased with the play of his team of late entering the game, Dean said the team entered Thursday’s road trip opener against North Bay looking to get over the hump of struggling in a game after a quality effort. After a shootout win over the Battalion, Friday’s result in Oshawa leaved the team looking to bounce back after a poor game.
“The real storyline is how do we respond against Owen Sound,” Dean said.
Winners of four in a row, the Generals improve to 10-13-1-2 with Friday’s result.