He liked the fight in his team.
Soo Greyhounds coach John Dean is taking the positives from a home ice setback Wednesday night against the Saginaw Spirit.
It was a game in which they trailed 2-1 heading into the final period before a pair of power play goals in the opening minutes of the final period extended the Saginaw lead, which grew to 6-1 at one point before the home team cut the lead to 6-4.
A pair of late goals ultimately sealed an 8-4 Ontario Hockey League victory for the Spirit over the Greyhounds Wednesday at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
In a one-goal game at the time, Saginaw scored twice on a 5-on-3 man advantage to start the third period, which seemingly sealed the Greyhounds fate in the game.
“Those are back breakers,” Dean said of the back-to-back power play goals to start the third period. “It’s tough to start a period (down) 5-on-3.”
“It’s where they’re strong,” Dean added. “Those five guys they send out there on the first power play (unit) is pretty special. You can’t give them that many opportunities and they made us pay.”
Saginaw coach Chris Lazary said he “didn’t feel the score was indicative of how good I thought (the Greyhounds) played.”
While the Greyhounds battling back wasn’t ideal, it’s been a trend for the Spirit this season that teams have come back on them in games.
“The way that we allow teams to get back into games when we have full control has been an issue,” Lazary said. “That’s why our goals against is so high. It’s the same old story that, as much as we focus on it, for whatever reason, we can’t make the adjustment.”
“To get it to 6-4 is impressive,” Dean said of the Greyhounds coming back. “There was a lot of belief on that bench that we were going to come back and make it 6-6 and hopefully send this thing to overtime.”
Dean added that he felt the Greyhounds “played a good brand of hockey tonight.”
Lazary also spoke of zone exits being a continuing issue for the Spirit in games.
“We’ve been talking about zone exits,” Lazary said. “There’s so many times where we have a chance to get a puck out or should get out and for whatever reason this year, we cannot get pucks out and they always end up in our net.”
Saginaw opened the scoring early as Michael Misa found himself below the goalline and hit Igor Chernyshov in the slot and the latter beat Landon Miller 1:40 into the game.
With the Spirit on the power play to start the second period, Misa beat Miller from the right faceoff circle on a one-timer off a pass from Calem Mangone 46 seconds into the period.
The Greyhounds got on the board with a shorthanded marker at 19:01 as Noel Nordh beat Andrew Oke on a 2-on-1 with Justin Cloutier after a turnover by Spirit defenceman Zayne Parekh in the Sault zone to start the play.
The power play goals to start the third period began 34 seconds into the period as Chernyshov beat Miller from the left circle on a one-timer that handcuffed the Sault netminder.
Saginaw then extended the lead as Kristian Epperson beat Miller on the second penalty in the 5-on-3 just 17 seconds later.
The Spirit took a 5-1 lead when Mangone skated down the right wing and beat Miller with a shot from the right faceoff circle at 4:56.
Sebastien Gervais gave Saginaw a 6-1 lead at 6:40 as he split a pair of Sault defenders near the Greyhounds blueline before beating Miller. The goal ended the night for Miller in goal, who was replaced by Reid Thomas.
On the next shift, Travis Hayes made it a 6-2 game as he beat Oke from the left circle on a pass from Carson Andrew 14 seconds later.
It then turned into a 6-3 game at 12:38 as Andrew scored on a rebound of a David Holub point shot in traffic in close, beating Oke during a scramble.
The Greyhounds pulled to within two when Brady Martin potted a rebound of a Marco Mignosa shot at 15:58 to make it a 6-4 game.
Parekh gave the Spirit a 7-4 lead 25 seconds later when he skated into the Sault zone and beat Thomas with a shot from the high slot.
Misa capped off the scoring with 38 seconds to go as he scored into an empty Sault net on a pass from Chernyshov on a 2-on-1.
Andrew finished the night with a goal and an assist while Cloutier assisted on three goals for the Greyhounds.
Miller stopped 18 of 24 shots before coming out of the game just under seven minutes into the third period following Saginaw’s sixth goal.
Asked about Miller, Dean spoke of it being a tough night for the netminder.
“I think we need to be better there,” Dean said. “There’s an opportunity for us to fight and claw into that game. At the same time, there’s always a mistake in front that leads to the scoring chance, but definitely, it was a tough game.”
Thomas faced just one shot the rest of the way for the Greyhounds.
Chernyshov had two goals and two assists for the Spirit while Misa added a pair of goals and an assist. Epperson, the third member of the Saginaw top line, also had a multi-point night with a goal and an assist.
“As they go, we go,” Lazary said of the Spirit trio. “They were really good. Since they’ve gotten together and we got Igor into the lineup they’re starting to get some consistency.”
Parekh and Mangone had a goal and two assists for Saginaw.
Defenceman Graydon Jones also had a three-point night with three assists for the Spirit in the game.
Oke stopped 25 shots for Saginaw.
The Greyhounds now head on the road for three games this weekend, beginning Friday night in London against the Knights before traveling to Sarnia to take on the Sting. The team will wrap up the weekend on Family Day with a matinee game in Brantford against the Bulldogs on Monday.
The Greyhounds fall to 20-30-1-1 on the season following Wednesday’s setback and hold a two-point edge on the Owen Sound Attack for the eighth and final playoff spot in the OHL’s Western Conference.
Owen Sound has a game in hand on the Greyhounds.
The Guelph Storm also gained ground on the Greyhounds on Wednesday night thanks to a 4-3 overtime victory in Sarnia against the Sting. The Storm sit three points behind the Greyhounds in the standings with two games in hand.
Saginaw improves to 28-21-1-1 with the win.
On the injury front for the Greyhounds, Nolan Lalonde, Owen Allard, and Christopher Brown sat out Wednesday for the Sault.
Dean said all three are not expected to travel with the team this weekend but remain out day-to-day and are close to returning to the lineup.