They planned to treat the games as though they meant something and in the early stages, it showed.
The Soo Greyhounds took a 2-0 lead through 20 minutes and ultimately picked up a 6-3 Ontario Hockey League win over the Flint Firebirds on Friday night at the Dort Financial Center in Flint to open the final weekend of the OHL regular season.
Both teams entered action on Friday, which was the first of back-to-back games this weekend between the two clubs, with little to play for after clinching their spots in the Western Conference standings.
For the Greyhounds though, the final games of the regular season are a dress rehearsal for the playoff dance that begins next week.
“These games, even though they don’t mean anything in the standings, they mean something to us,” said overage forward Cole MacKay. “We have things that we have to accomplish and build up to get ready for next week. Tonight is a good addition to what we have going. The games are definitely meaningful for us right now just to clean up some things and build up for the playoffs.”
“It’s pretty clear that our guys have a clear intent on what they’re trying to do and accomplish in the game,” Dean said. “We know we have a lot of things that we need to clean up. Credit to our guys for going out there with purpose and playing hard.”
“Our intensity was amazing,” added rookie defenceman Connor Toms. “We were ready to play right from the drop of the puck.”
MacKay said the game “was another good building block for next week.”
“Minus the third period, we had discipline with the puck,” MacKay said. “We took care of it. We played the way we wanted to in their zone and made good plays and the goals followed. It was a good game all around. We did a lot of good things.”
Dean added that late penalties in the game were a concern.
“That’s two games in a row that we’ve taken a lot of penalties,” Dean said. “We have to stay disciplined in those style of games.”
The penalty kill factored in for the Greyhounds as the team limited Flint to one power play goal in eight man-advantage opportunities.
“We looked very organized,” Dean said. “There’s probably still some frustration with opportunities for us to clear pucks that are cleanly on our stick that need to go down 200 feet. Other than that, we were positionally very sound, our goaltending was excellent. We forechecked very good. Structurally (it was) very good.”
The Greyhounds opened the scoring near the midway point of the opening period.
With the teams playing 4-on-4, Toms took a pass from Bryce McConnell-Barker in the left circle, cut to the net, and slid a backhand past Flint starter Luke Cavallin to make it 1-0 Greyhounds 9:21 in.
McConnell-Barker made it 2-0 Greyhounds n the power play at 16:58 when he took a cross-ice feed in the left circle from Robert Calisti and beat Cavallin with a shot through a Flint defenceman.
MacKay made it 3-0 Greyhounds at 4:37 of the second period when he took a pass near the Flint blueline from Rory Kerins and beat Cavallin with a shot from the high slot high glove side.
Toms picked up his second goal of the night at 15:17 when he scored on a rebound after Cavallin stopped Jack Thompson initially from the point.
On the next shift, Coulson Pitre got the Firebirds on the board. The rookie forward stepped around Ryan O’Rourke in the right faceoff circle and beat Greyhounds starter Tucker Tynan stick side at 15:37.
Zacharie Giroux cut the Greyhounds lead to 4-2 at 5:44 of the third when he grabbed a loose puck in the slot and catches Tynan undecided on whether to come out and play the puck or not. Giroux grabbed it and deked the Sault netminder instead to pull Flint to within two.
Just 11 seconds later, after Tyler Deline took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the Giroux goal, Tye Kartye went to the net and redirected a pass on his backhand from Kerins on the left wing past Cavallin to make it 5-2.
Kerins then made it 6-2 at 14:19 when he scored on a rebound after Kartye was stopped initially on a 2-on-1.
Tag Bertuzzi made it 6-3 with a power play goal with 2:39 to go when he scored on a rebound after Tynan stopped Braeden Kressler from the point.
Kerins finished the night with a goal and two assists while Kartye, McConnell-Barker, and MacKay had one of each.
O’Rourke and Calisti finished the night with a pair of assists each.
For Toms, the game was the first multi-goal game for the rookie blueliner.
“It was nice to contribute on the scoresheet,” Toms said, adding that the two-goal performance was even more special coming in a victory.
The multi-point nights for Kerins and MacKay put the veteran forwards over the 200-point mark for their OHL careers.
Tynan stopped 34 shots for the Greyhounds.
“Tucker was great tonight,’ Dean said. “On the penalty kill, he was fantastic. He played a really solid game for us. That’s what we’re going to need from him moving forward. We put in a pretty good game as a whole for the most part, but when we did break down, Tucker was there to bail us out.”
At the other end, Cavallin stopped 36 shots.
The Greyhounds lost Kalvyn Watson with 4:51 to go in regulation time after the veteran forward was given a match penalty for a cross-check on Flint defenceman Tyler Deline.
Watson is facing suspension for the penalty, which will be reviewed by the league.
The teams wrap up their respective regular season schedules on Saturday night in Flint.
Dean said that, while Watson’s status affects the decisions somewhat, there are plans that some players could sit out Saturday’s game.
Tyler Savard, who has been out of the lineup due to injury, did make the trip and Dean said the rookie forward would be available to play
The Greyhounds will finish fourth in the OHL’s Western Conference and head into Saturday’s game with a 39-21-6-1 record. The team will face the Guelph Storm in the opening round of the OHL playoffs after the Storm went to overtime against the Kitchener Rangers on Friday. The single point clinched fifth for the Storm
Flint, who clinched third in the Western Conference with a win over Sarnia earlier in the week, enter Saturday’s game with a 41-21-1-4 record. As a result of Friday’s finish in Guelph between the Storm and Rangers, the Firebirds will face the Owen Sound Attack in round one.
Notebook: The Greyhounds will open the playoffs on Thursday night at home.
With fourth in the OHL’s Western Conference clinched, the Greyhounds will open round one of the playoffs at home. The team will host game one on April 21 with game two on April 23, both at 7:07 p.m.
The full schedule is as follows:
Game 1 – April 21 (Sault Ste. Marie)
Game 2 – April 23 (Sault Ste. Marie)
Game 3 – April 26 (Guelph)
Game 4 – April 28 (Guelph)
*Game 5 – April 30 (Sault Ste. Marie) – if necessary
*Game 6 – May 2 (Guelph) – if necessary
*Game 7 – May 4 (Sault Ste. Marie) – if necessary