It was the ideal way to bounce back.
Just 24 hours after having their 23-game winning streak snapped, the Soo Greyhounds got an overtime goal from Tim Gettinger to beat the Oshawa Generals 3-2 at the Tribute Communities Centre in Oshawa on Saturday night.
With the Greyhounds on the power play, Gettinger converted a chance from the right faceoff circle, beating Oshawa goaltender Kyle Keyser to give the Greyhounds the victory on a pass from rookie blueliner Rasmus Sandin.
“Rasmus made a great play finding the seam,” Gettinger said.
“In moments like that, it’s hard to really pinpoint where you’re going to shoot,” Gettinger said. “You just put it on net and hope it goes in.”
Gettinger finished the night with a goal and an assist. Hayden Verbeek and Joe Carroll also scored for the Greyhounds.
Goaltender Matthew Villalta made 28 saves for the Greyhounds.
“He made an outstanding save in the second period on their power play to keep the game at 1-0 and then we scored shortly after it,” Bannister said. “He was really good for us again tonight. Certainly we needed a game out of him like that.”
Gettinger called the win important after dropping a shootout decision in Mississauga on Friday to end the Greyhounds winning streak.
“It says a lot about the team we have here and it’s really big for us to bounce back,” Gettinger said.
“Oshawa came out hard against us and were physical, but we settled into the game and had some push-back,” Bannister said. “Once we started moving our feet, it created a little more space for ourselves. It was a tough game, but our guys competed hard.”
The win improves the Greyhounds record to 33-3-2-1 and the team sits 15 points ahead of the Sarnia Sting in the OHL’s West Division.
Domenico Commisso and Nico Gross scored for Oshawa.
Generals goaltender Kyle Keyser stopped 27 shots.
The Generals, battling with the Kingston Frontenacs and Niagara IceDogs for positioning in the Eastern Conference, fall to 19-17-3-0.
The Greyhounds wrap up the weekend on the road with a game in Guelph against the Storm on Sunday afternoon.
In other games around the OHL on Friday night, in Sarnia, Franco Sproviero and Sean Josling had two goals and an assist each as the Sarnia Sting beat the Flint Firebirds 7-1. Sting goaltender Justin Fazio made 39 saves.
In Kingston, former Kingston Frontenac Cody Morgan had the game-winning goal as the Windsor Spitfires scored three unanswered goals to beat Kingston 4-3. Jake Smith had a goal and an assist for Windsor. Linus Nyman scored a pair of goals for Kingston.
In Sudbury, Sam Miletic had a goal and two assists as the London Knights beat the Sudbury Wolves 5-1. Evan Bouchard and Liam Foudy added a pair of goals each for London.
In Saginaw, Marcus Crawford scored at 3:29 of overtime to give the Saginaw Spirit a 4-3 win over the Erie Otters. Brady Gilmour added a pair of goals for Saginaw. Ivan Lodnia had a goal and an assist for Erie.
In Guelph, James McEwan had a goal and two assists as the Guelph Storm beat the Owen Sound Attack 4-1. Givani Smith scored a pair of goals for the Storm.
In Hamilton, Matthew Struthers had the game-winning goal as the North Bay Battalion beat the Hamilton Bulldogs 3-2. North Bay goaltender Julian Sime made 30 saves.
In Kitchener, Jacob Ingham made 40 saves as the Mississauga Steelheads beat the Kitchener Rangers 6-2. Owen Tippett had two goals and two assists for Mississauga.