As far as playoff games go, it certainly had a little bit of everything.
In the end, a rookie forward gave the Soo Greyhounds a victory and a commanding series lead in the process.
Jordan D’Intino scored the overtime winner as the Greyhounds beat the Guelph Storm 5-4 in game three of their Ontario Hockey League Western Conference quarter-final series at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph.
The overtime winner came after the Storm battled back to tie the game late.
The Greyhounds took a 4-0 lead through one period and appeared to be in control well into the second period.
After an altercation in the Greyhounds zone that led to the end of the night for Sault starting goaltender Tucker Tynan as well as high-scoring Storm forward Sasha Pastujov.
Following the incident, the Storm battled all the way back before surrendering the overtime winner.
Greyhounds coach John Dean said getting the win after surrendering the lead says a lot about the team, calling it a special win.
“I’m super impressed with the way the guys responded in overtime,” Dean said. “A lot of teams could have easily folded the tent after blowing a four-goal lead with the way it happened in the third period. For our guys to come out and play the way they did in overtime, it says a lot about the character of this group.”
Dean added that controlling their emotions continued to be a problem though for the team, calling it a trend that “needs to stop.”
“It’s nipped us in the butt here twice,” Dean said. “I don’t think we were completely at fault in all of those. Some of those calls were a little difficult to swallow.”
Dean said the message to the players prior to overtime was the Greyhounds ability to bounce back from tough situations.
“After tough games, our group has always responded the next day or the next game,” Dean said. “I told them, they always respond, and I have no doubt that they will again, and the overtime was a pretty good performance.”
“That’s the best part about hockey is the highs and lows you can get in a game,” added defenceman Jack Thompson. “We came out buzzing and had a tough third period, but Deaner came in the room and told us how good we responded to adversity all year and we had no doubt that we were going to win that game when it got into overtime.”
Thompson called it one of the most emotional games he’s played in the OHL.
Storm coach George Burnett said the team needs to take the positives from the game.
“It looked good. I thought we did so many good things to generate the goals and the possession and the chances and the opportunities. But we got away from it in the overtime. I thought we kind of chased the game a bit in the overtime,” Burnett said in an interview with GuelphToday.
“But I think we need to take a lot of positive things from the effort. It would have been very easy for us to pack it in after the first period. The guys deserve a lot of credit and be proud of the way they fought back.”
The Greyhounds got on the board first when Marco Mignosa jumped on a rebound during a scramble in close and beat Storm goaltender Jacob Oster. After Jack Thompson’s initial shot from the point was stopped, the puck bounced around before ending up on the stick of Mignosa to the left of the net at 6:36.
Cole MacKay then made it 2-0 Greyhounds 16 seconds later. Rookie forward Tyler Savard tried to move the puck on the left wing down low to Rory Kerins below the goalline. The puck proceeded to deflect off a Guelph player into the slot where MacKay grabbed the loose puck and beat Oster glove side.
Overage defenceman Robert Calisti made it 3-0 Greyhounds with two seconds left in a power play later in the period. The veteran blueliner took a pass from Kirill Kudryavtsev and beat Oster stick side from the right circle at 13:33.
With 3:17 to go in the period and the Greyhounds on the power play, Jack Thompson made it 4-0. He took a pass in the right circle from Ryan O’Rourke at the top of the Guelph zone and beat Oster high short side.
The Greyhounds lost Tynan midway through the second period when he was given a match penalty for attempt to injure after punching Pastujov with his blocker after the latter ran into him in the crease.
Pastujov was given a major penalty for charging and a game misconduct as a result.
The play led to a scrum and eventual fight between Savard of the Greyhounds and Cooper Walker of the Storm.
The Storm got on the board a short time later when Charlie Paquette converted a pass from Michael Buchinger at 12:22 of the second period. Buchinger got the puck after Ivanov made a save on a shot from Matthew Poitras initially.
Guelph cut the lead to 4-2 early in the third period when Poitras scored on a rebound in tight after Ivanov stopped Jake Karabela on a break from the slot in just 3:46 into the period
Ben McFarlane then cut the Greyhounds lead to 4-3 on the power play. After Ivanov stopped Walker initially from the right circle, McFarlane scored on a rebound to pull the Storm closer 59 seconds after Poitras’ goal.
Buchinger tied the game for the Storm in the final minute when he tried to hit Braeden Bowman in the slot with a pass. It proceeded to hit the stick of Calisti and deflect past Ivanov to even the game at four.
D’Intino’s overtime winner came as he took a pass near the blueline from O‘Rourke along the side boards, skated to the top of the left faceoff circle and beat Bennett through heavy traffic high glove, including a screen by MacKay at the top of the crease to give the Greyhounds the win and a commanding series lead.
“Rourkie went down and left it for me up top and I came in and waited and just tried to put it on net,” D’Intino said of the winner.
Calling it the biggest goal of his career, D’Intino said he felt “lots of excitement” when the puck went in.
“It was definitely unreal,” D’Intino said.
Thompson finished the night with a goal and two assists to pace the Greyhounds offensively. Calisti had a goal and an assist while O’Rourke assisted on a pair of goals.
Tynan stopped all 14 shots he faced before his night was ended in the second period. Ivanov made 18 saves on 22 shots the rest of the way. With Tynan getting the match, Charlie Schenkel joined the team for the remainder of the game on the bench.
Buchinger and Poitras had a goal and two assists each for the Storm.
Oster stopped 17 of 21 shots in the opening period before being pulled. Bennett stopped 25 shots the rest of the way.
The series is set to shift back to Sault Ste. Marie for game five on Saturday night at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
Game six, if necessary, is scheduled for Monday night in Guelph.
Tynan’s status for game five for the Greyhounds is up in the air after the match penalty on Thursday. The play will be reviewed by the league officials before a decision is made.
Also of note, Savard, who was suspended for two games during the regular season for surpassing the OHL’s three-fight limit, will not miss any time after his altercation with Walker as the number resets for the playoffs
After sitting out game three on Tuesday due to a non-COVID illness, Daniil Chayka return to the Guelph lineup Thursday night.