There’s no question returning to major junior hockey is an adjustment.
For Soo Greyhounds forward Owen Allard, that return happened Wednesday night after getting returned to the Ontario Hockey League following time with the American Hockey League’s Tucson Roadrunners, the Utah Hockey Club’s top affiliate team.
“It’s just a different level,” Allard said of being in pro camp. “I feel like at the pro level, it’s really predictable hockey. Everyone’s in the right spots at the right time. Here you kind of have to slow your routes down a little bit. I wouldn’t say it’s sloppy, it’s just different.”
“It’s a big change,” Allard added about coming back to junior hockey.
Greyhounds coach John Dean said he felt Allard “played with pace and speed” in the victory.
Allard’s return came Wednesday night in a 5-3 win by the Greyhounds over the Saginaw Spirit at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
Allard called the win a “team effort.”
“We didn’t have our best game, but good teams find a way to win games like that,” Allard added. “Credit to our guys. Everyone really dug in late in the game.”
Dean said following the game that defensive zone play continues to be a concern for the team.
“I didn’t like the passivity of our D zone,” Dean said. “I didn’t like our stick checks. We looked lost and confused at times, which is partially on me as a coach.”
“There’s a lot of things that were within our players power to make that less disastrous,” Dean added.
Allard agreed when asked about the Greyhounds play in the win that the locals looked “passive” defensively and added that he feels the Greyhounds need to “get a little more hungry” offensively.
“I find sometimes we’re being a little too cute (offensively),” Allard said. “Simple is good in this league. That’s something we’ll clean up in video this week.”
On the offensive side of the game, Dean was pleased with some facets of the Greyhounds game.
“Our offensive zone was good,” Dean said. “Our hunts were good.
Despite the loss, Spirit coach Chris Lazary said he “liked a lot of things that we did.”
“We’ll identify some of the issues and the reads and the things that we have to do a little bit better,” Lazary said of responding to the loss. “Then we’ll look at a lot of the positives that we want to do more of.”
There was some concern for the Greyhounds late in the second period as goaltender Charlie Schenkel left the game with an injury.
Dean said following the win that Schenkel “started cramping up” after getting hit by a Saginaw player.
Dean added that the injury appeared to be minor and the veteran netminder was taking out of the game as a precaution and replaced by Landon Miller.
The Greyhounds opened the scoring late in the first period as Marco Mignosa drove the net on a 2-on-0 with Owen Allard and took a pass from the overage forward before beating Saginaw goaltender Andrew Oke with 3:54 to go in the period.
Saginaw tied the game in the second period as Ethan Hay took a pass in the right faceoff circle from Jacob Cloutier and beat Schenkel glove side at 4:06.
The Spirit took the lead at 9:16 as Michael Misa scored on the power play in tight after a back-door pass from Zayne Parekh on the left side boards.
The Greyhounds made it a 2-2 game on a power play of their own as Allard took a pass in the slot from Justin Cloutier and beat Oke through traffic at 13:12.
The Greyhounds took a 3-2 lead later in the period as Spencer Evans beat Oke from the slot with the teams playing 4-on-4 and after Cloutier forced a turnover by Misa along the side boards at 14:51.
With Miller in to replace Schenkel, Calem Mangone beat the Sault netminder on a shot from the left circle after a pass from Parekh on the power play to make it a 3-3 game through 40 minutes.
After the Spirit had a goal waved off in the third period that would have given the visitors the lead, the Greyhounds took a 4-3 lead with 2:42 to go thanks to Christopher Brown’s first goal of the season.
The veteran forward skated the puck into the Saginaw zone, got it back from Mignosa in the slot and beat Oke from in tight before taking a heavy hit from Saginaw’s Will Bishop, who ultimately received a major penalty for checking from behind on the play.
On the ensuing power play, the Greyhounds made it a 5-3 game thanks to a goal by Justin DeZoete, who beat Oke from in close on a pass from Hilton down low with 1:14 to go in the game.
Asked about Brown’s injury following the game, Dean said it didn’t appear to be serious.
Dean said he felt both Schenkel and Miller were good in goal for the Greyhounds in the win.
“Both our goalies were exceptional tonight,” Dean said. “Without them, we don’t win that hockey game.”
Schenkel made 25 saves on 27 shots before coming out of the game and Miller stopped 10 of 11 shots the rest of the way in just over 20 minutes of work.
Mignosa finished the night with a goal and two assists for the Greyhounds while Allard and Evans chipped in with a goal and an assist each. Hilton assisted on a pair of goals for the Sault.
Oke stopped 26 shots for the Spirit in the setback.
Mangone had a goal and an assist offensively for the Spirit while Parekh assisted on a pair of goals.
Asked about Noel Nordh’s status for their game on Friday night against the Ottawa 67’s, Dean said the Swedish forward is a possibility to get in the lineup after some paperwork getting cleared up kept him out of Wednesday’s contest.