SAULT STE. MARIE - The special teams battle was an area of focus heading in and the Soo Greyhounds saw a improvement.
A pair of power play goals 45 seconds apart and a shorthanded goal moments after a four-on-four ended helped the Soo Greyhounds to a 4-1 victory over the Guelph Storm on Saturday night at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
With the win, the Greyhounds also take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-7 opening round Ontario Hockey League playoff series with the Storm as the series shifts south.
The power play goals came early in the second period with the Greyhounds on a pair of separate two-man advantages and broke open a 1-0 game at the time.
Greyhounds coach John Dean called the 5-on-3 goals “pretty deflating.”
For Guelph, coach Chad Wiseman agreed that the goals took something out of the Storm.
“It’s tough to regroup from,” Wiseman said. “That was a turning point in the game.”
“To start the period down back-to-back five-on-threes, obviously them scoring on both, we dug ourselves a hole.”
Asked his thoughts on the penalties that led to the two-man advantages for the Greyhounds, Wiseman said “I’ve got no words to describe what I saw there.”
Overall, Wiseman said there were things he was pleased with despite the loss.
“The effort was there,” Wiseman said. “The attitude was right. The compete was good. When you’re in the box for a large part of the second half of the game, injuries during the game and numbers are low with guys in the box and playing too many minutes, it’s an uphill climb that obviously was too much for us tonight.”
With goaltender Brayden Gillespie, and defencemen Brayden Hislop and Rowan Topp out of the lineup in the game due to injury and Max Namestnikov serving the first game of a four-game suspension, the Storm also lost veteran forwards Jake Karabela and Braeden Bowman to injury in the second period of Saturday’s contest.
Wiseman said following the game that the severity of the injuries wasn’t known and their status for game three was up in the air.
Namestnikov was serving the first game of a suspension for his hit on Greyhounds forward Jack Beck in Thursday’s opening game of the series.
Beck, who left the game following the unpenalized hit, did not play on Saturday’s game.
Dean said Beck will travel with the team for games three and four, but he does not expect the overage forward to suit up for either game.
When asked about the suspension to Namestnikov, Dean said “I’m glad the league got it right eventually.”
Dean said he “loved” the start from his team, adding that he felt the Greyhounds fed off the crowd in the opening 10 minutes of the contest.
Dean added that he felt the team was “a little sloppy” at points in the opening period and second period as well.
“Definitely a sloppier win than normal,” Dean said. “It’s a good game by us, but it’s definitely not our Grade A stuff.”
The Greyhounds opened the scoring early as a shot by Caeden Carlisle from the left point beat Damian Slavik stick side through traffic 62 seconds into the game.
The home side made it a 2-0 game in the second period as they capitalized on a two-man advantage. Marco Mignosa redirected a back-door pass from Bryce McConnell-Barker past Slavik at 5:39.
Just 45 seconds later, and again on a two-man advantage, Jacob Frasca beat Slavik with a shot from the slot to make it a 3-0 game.
The Greyhounds took a 4-0 lead at 16:33 as Arttu Karki beat Slavik with a one-timer from the right circle on a pass from Frasca shorthanded just after a Sault penalty had ended.
Guelph got on the board nine seconds later and with one second left in the power play as Rylan Singh beat Greyhounds goaltender Charlie Schenkel from the top of the left circle on a shot that was deflected on the way to the net.
Frasca and Mignosa finished the night with a goal and an assist each while McConnell-Barker and Christopher Brown had a pair of assists each for the Greyhounds.
Schenkel made 19 saves in the victory.
Slavik made 23 saves for the Storm.
Game three in the series is Monday night with game four on Wednesday night, both in Guelph.
If necessary, game five is back in Sault Ste. Marie on Friday night.
