While the effort is something he’s happy with, Soo Greyhounds coach John Dean admits there’s some frustration that the results aren’t there.
The Greyhounds concluded a three-game Ontario Hockey League road trip on Sunday afternoon with a 4-2 loss at the hands of the London Knights.
As a result, the team will return home with a single point from the trip, picked up in an overtime loss on Saturday night in Saginaw.
“We’re maybe undeservedly on the wrong side of a couple of scores,” Dean said following Sunday’s loss to London.
“We need to find a way to be closers,” Dean added. “It’s frustrating singing the same tune about how hard we work and compete and our ability to stay in games and be relentless all the way until the last whistle.”
After getting outshot by an 11-2 margin in the opening period, the Greyhounds found some life early in the second period. The team held a 2-1 lead deep into the third period before London tied the game on a power play and took the lead for good minutes later.
Dean said the feeling on the bench following the power play goal wasn’t an issue, but the go-ahead goal just under four minutes later was deflating.
“When they scored the go-ahead goal after how hard (the Greyhounds) worked, the three-in-three, you could see the deflation on the bench,” Dean said. “The go-ahead goal was a real tough one. The guys tried to pick each other up, staff tried to pick each other up, but you could see that we lost a little bit of the wind in our sails there.”
After some penalty trouble in the opening period, Dean said he was ecstatic with the response after an early goal by Bryce McConnell-Barker in the second period.
“As soon as Bryce scored, I was thrilled with the way we played (after),” Dean said.
“In the third period, we generate enough to put ourselves up by one. We started managing the puck significantly better,” Dean also said. “We started doing some good things. (London) is a tough team over there.”
Despite being outshot in the opening period, the Greyhounds thought they opened the scoring as time expired. Marco Mignosa followed up a chance at the side of the London net and tried to stuff the puck past London goaltender Brett Brochu and defenceman Ethan MacKinnon in the crease. The puck made its way to the goalline, but the video review didn’t confirm the puck was crossing the line.
Just over four minutes into the second period, Bryce McConnell-Barker opened the scoring for the Greyhounds. After the Knights turned the puck over in the Sault zone, the Greyhounds captain skated down the left wing and beat Brochu 5-hole from the left faceoff circle.
Denver Barkey tied the game for the Knights at 17:51 when he beat Greyhounds goaltender Samuel Ivanov with a shot from the left wing high short side.
The Greyhounds took a 2-1 lead at 5:23 of the third period when Jordan D’Intino scored on a shorthanded breakaway. After George Diaco couldn’t handle the puck at the Greyhounds' blueline, D’Intino broke in and beat Brochu with a backhand glove side.
After back-to-back penalties to the Greyhounds, the Knights took advantage of the 5-on-3 to tie the game. In the final seconds of the initial penalty, London defenceman Logan Mailloux beat Ivanov with a one-timer from the top of the left circle stick side on a pass from Oliver Bonk.
Just 3:42 later, Easton Cowan gave London the lead for the first time in the contest. Cowan took a pass in the right faceoff circle from Jackson Edward down low and beat Ivanov stick side.
London sealed the win with an empty net goal from Sean McGurn with 33 seconds to go.
Ivanov stopped 21 shots for the Greyhounds in the loss.
Barkey finished the day with a goal and a pair of assists for the Knights, while Cowan had one of each.
Brochu stopped 18 shots.
Next up for the Greyhounds is a three-game homestand, and Dean said the message going into the stretch is that “consistency is king.”
“We’ve seen success with what we’re trying to do. We keep, unfortunately, making blunders late in games,” Dean said.
The Greyhounds return to action on Wednesday night in the opening game of a three-game homestand.
The team will take a 5-6-4-2 record into Wednesday’s game, where they will face the Flint Firebirds. The homestand will see the Greyhounds host the Kingston Frontenacs on Friday night before wrapping up the homestand on Sunday afternoon against London.
The Firebirds will have somewhat of a new look in Wednesday’s contest after trading high-scoring forward Brennan Othmann to the Peterborough Petes late on Saturday night.
In return for the New York Rangers prospect, the Firebirds received defenceman Artem Guryev (a San Jose Sharks prospect), a second-round pick in 2024 (originally Hamilton’s), a third-rounder in 2023 and a third-rounder in 2026.
On the injury front for the Greyhounds, overage forward Mark Duarte left the game in the second period after taking a clearing attempt to the face deep in the London zone on Sunday afternoon. The veteran forward was bleeding as he left the ice.
Dean said following the game that Duarte suffered a broken nose on the play. His status for the upcoming homestand was uncertain as of Sunday evening.
Rookie forward Connor Clattenburg may miss some time after receiving a match penalty for cross-checking in the final seconds of Sunday’s game.
The play will be automatically reviewed by the league office.