With four key players out of the lineup, depth was going to play a critical role as the Soo Greyhounds opened a three-game, pre-Christmas road trip on Wednesday night, and play a role it did.
Playing with a short bench, the Greyhounds scored four times in the second period en route to a 6-2 Ontario Hockey League win over the North Bay Battalion at the North Bay Memorial Gardens Wednesday to extend their winning streak to five games in the process.
The Greyhounds played the game minus a pair of players due to injury – Bryce McConnell-Barker and Jordan D’Intino – and two more away preparing for the upcoming World Junior Hockey Championship in Sweden – Owen Allard (Team Canada) and Arttu Karki (Team Finland).
“The importance of these games is different guys stepping up,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said.
The Greyhounds got multi-point nights from six players in the victory, including two-goal nights from Alex Kostov and Brenden Sirizzotti.
“The bench was fantastic,” Dean said. “Jack Beck and Brenden Sirizzotti, their leadership and getting the guys to feel good about themselves before the game was really good. I’m really proud of the depth in our group. I’m proud that we played the same style that we always do. That’s the mark of a good team when some big bodies are out of the lineup, and you still see the same brand of hockey.”
“We had guys that stepped up and played a lot more minutes than they ever have and played roles they never got the chance to play, and it showed that it doesn’t matter. We’re all good enough to be in this league,” Sirizzotti said. “Our depth is insane this year.”
Dean said the coaching staff challenged the team prior to the second period.
“We were really good on the forecheck,” Dean said. “(There was) a lot of good movement in the offensive zone. I really liked our second period.”
Dean agreed that he felt the Greyhounds “put that game out of reach” in the second period.
Kostov spoke of the Greyhounds rebounding well after North Bay opened the scoring and settling in well in the second period.
Kostov added that the message after the opening period was “to bear down on pucks, win your battles and stay on top of them.”
“We came out early and got one and just kept rolling from there,” Sirizzotti added.
“Everyone put their foot on the gas there and we just didn’t stop,” Sirizzotti also said.
For the Battalion, coach Ryan Oulahen felt his team struggled through stretches of the game.
“That’s a really good hockey team over there and they play with a ton of speed and skill, and they make things hard,” Oulahen said in an interview with BayToday.
“Our two games we’ve had success against them is probably our two most complete efforts. When you don’t have your A game so to speak, and running everything on all cylinders, you’re going to struggle against them. I thought at times we were okay, and other times we lacked stuff,” Oulahen also said.
The teams traded goals in the opening period beginning with rookie forward Reyth Smith scoring for the Battalion to give the home side the lead at 9:15 of the period.
Smith got the puck in the slot off a pass from Paul Christopoulos and beat Greyhounds starter Charlie Schenkel high stick side.
The Greyhounds tied the game 4:14 later as Christopher Brown went to the net and scored on a rebound after North Bay goaltender Mike McIvor stopped a shot from Connor Clattenburg from the right circle initially.
Jusitn Cloutier made it 2-1 Greyhounds at 4:02 of the second period when he slipped into open ice in the right faceoff circle and took a pass from Beck and proceeded beat McIvor stick side on the power play.
Just under six minutes later, the Greyhounds extended the lead as Sirizzotti went to the net and redirected a pass from Marco Mignosa past McIvor moments after Mignosa beat a North Bay player to the puck on a Greyhounds dump-in.
Kostov extended the Greyhounds lead further 1:22 later as he scored on a loose puck in tight after a shot by Jack Beck was turned aside by McIvor.
Kostov added his second of the night at 16:23 of the second period when he took a pass in the slot from Brown after the latter forced a turnover in the North Bay zone with the Greyhounds shorthanded.
The Battalion made it a 6-2 game 1:07 later as Ethan Procyszyn took a pass in the slot from Brice Cooke below the goalline and beat Schenkel 5-hole on the power play.
Sirizzotti capped off the scoring just under seven minutes into the third period when he beat McIvor high glove side from the slot after a point shot by Andrew Gibson was blocked in traffic in the slot.
In addition to the two-goal nights for Kostov and Sirizzotti, Beck assisted on three goals.
Kostov said following the game that his confidence level has been on the rise of late.
“Our coach challenged me to own the puck a bit more and play with a little more swagger,” Kostov said.
Cloutier and Brown added a goal and an assist each while Mignosa assisted on a pair of goals.
Schenkel made 27 saves for the Greyhounds.
McIvor stopped 35 shots at the other end for the Battalion.
The Greyhounds now shift focus to a game in Kitchener on Friday night against the Rangers, a game that will see the top two teams in the OHL’s Western Conference face off against each other.
With Wednesday’s win, the Greyhounds improve to 21-8-2-0 on the season and sit four points behind the conference-leading Rangers. The Greyhounds also have a game in hand on Kitchener with the Rangers also off until Friday night’s matchup.
The Greyhounds have won five in a row and move nine points ahead of the Saginaw Spirit for first in the West Division as well though the Spirit have four games in hand and are in action Thursday night at home against the Flint Firebirds.
North Bay, in a heated battle in the Eastern Conference, falls to 14-11-4-1.
The team is tied for fourth in the conference with Sudbury while sitting a point behind Brantford and two points behind Ottawa and Mississauga, who are tied for top spot.
After getting injured on a hit by London’s Sawyer Boulton on Sunday afternoon, Greyhounds forward Bryce McConnell-Barker sat out Wednesday’s game and is currently in concussion protocol.
The timeframe on his return to the lineup remains up in the air.
The OHL announced Wednesday that Boulton had been suspended 10 games for the hit.