Soo Greyhounds coach John Dean feels his team deserved better.
A high-sticking minor to defenceman Jacob LeGuerrier led to the overtime winner as the London Knights beat the Greyhounds 6-5 Sunday afternoon at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
LeGuerrier was making a play on Knights forward Connor McMichael and took a penalty on the play 15 seconds into the extra frame.
The Knights capitalized as 20 seconds into the power play, Liam Foudy poked in a loose puck after Greyhounds netminder Bailey Brkin made the initial stop on Ryan Merkley on the play.
“I think our team deserved a better fate,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said. “It’s a tough way to lose. We’ll build off this as a real positive for our group.”
Dean wasn’t pleased with the officiating in the contest.
“Unfortunately, the referees had an impact on the game tonight,” Dean said. “The other team got rewarded for dives and the same guy dove three times. It was a tough call at the end there.
“Our boys battled really hard,” Dean added. “It’s disappointing for our guys that it had to end that way.”
The Greyhounds opened up a 2-1 lead in the game after a strong opening period, but the Knights took the lead with three goals in the second period, a frame that saw the visitors outshoot the Greyhounds 25-5.
Dean was pleased with the Greyhounds battling back after a tough second period.
“The first period was phenomenal,” Dean said. “I was really happy with the way the guys played against a really good hockey club over there.”
“We showed a lot confidence in the third period to come back and play the way we did,” Dean also said. “I wish we had that same mentality consistently.”
Robert Calisti had a goal and two assists for the Greyhounds while Zack Trott had a goal and an assist.
Jaden Peca, Jaromir Pytlik, and Cole MacKay also scored for the Greyhounds.
Brkin made 33 saves.
McMichael, Foudy, and Antonio Stranges had a goal and an assist each for the Knights.
Defencemen Gerard Keane and Hunter Skinner assisted on two goals each.
Josh Nelson, Cole Tymkin, and Luke Evangelista also scored.
Dylan Myskiw got the start for the Knights, stopping 17 of 22 shots before being pulled following the Greyhounds fifth goal. Brett Brochu stopped all nine shots he face in just over 16 minutes of work to finish the night.
“You don’t want to go down 5-4 but we battled through,” said Knights coach Dale Hunter. “It was one of those games where it was back and forth with the amount of goals. No coach wants to give up five and six goals in a game but sometimes it happens.”
Sunday’s victory extends London’s winning streak to seven in a row as the team improves to 17-5-1-1. After starting the season 3-4-1-0, the Knights have gone 14-1-0-1 since.
“We’re just playing hard and trying to battle,” Hunter said of the streak.
The loss drops the Greyhounds record to 10-15-2-0.
Veteran defenceman Holden Wale left the game in the opening period due to injury and did not return.
Dean said following the game that it’s possible Wale could miss “significant time.”
On the play, Wale was moving the puck up the side boards in the Greyhounds zone and took a hit from London’s Billy Moskal. The play led to London’s first goal.
In other action around the league on Sunday, in Flint, Vladislav Kolyachonok had two goals and an assist as the Flint Firebirds beat the Sarnia Sting 5-3. Anthony Popovich made 39 saves for Flint.
In Kitchener, goals by Reid Valade and Michael Vukojevic were the difference as the Kitchener Rangers beat the Guelph Storm 2-1. Nico Daws made 33 saves for the Storm.
In Ottawa, Marco Rossi had two goals and an assist as the Ottawa 67’s beat the North Bay Battalion 6-1. Austen Keating and Joseph Garreffa chipped in with a goal and two assists each for Ottawa.
In Sudbury, Quinton Byfield scored 35 seconds into overtime to give the Sudbury Wolves a 5-4 win over the Mississauga Steelheads. Byfield finished the night with three goals while Blake Murray chipped in with three assists.
Sunday’s game between the Kingston Frontenacs and Oshawa Generals in Oshawa was postponed due to bad weather in the area.