A strong goaltending performance and a clutch shootout effort was critical for the Soo Greyhounds on Friday night.
After a 4-1 lead slipped away in the third period, overage forward Brenden Sirizzotti had the shootout winner as the Soo Greyhounds picked up a 5-4 Ontario Hockey League win over the Saginaw Spirit at the Dow Event Center in Saginaw.
The Spirit tied the game with under 10 seconds to go in regulation to force overtime and lead to Sirizzotti’s heroics in the shootout.
Despite surrendering the lead, Greyhounds coach John Dean said following the win that it was one the team felt it deserved.
“The guys put it all on the table and we think we deserved to win that one,” Dean said. “I'm really happy with our play, especially in the third period.”
The Greyhounds coach called the third period “elite.”
Pleased with battling back, Spirit coach Chris Lazary said there were parts of the Saginaw game that need to be cleaned up.
“We didn’t do much tonight that gave is a chance to win,” Spirit coach Chris Lazary said in a post-game interview on the Spirit radio broadcast. “We got up one and then we lost our identity. I don’t think we made any plays on breakouts. We had a lot of pucks that we turned over coming out of our own zone that allowed them to transition and get right back on top.”
Spirit forward Michael Misa opened the scoring 8:12 into the game when he took a short pass in the slot from Hunter Haight and beat Greyhounds goaltender Charlie Schenkel stick side.
Brenden Sirizzotti tied the game 1:24 later when he skated through the high slot and into the right faceoff circle before beating Saginaw goaltender Nolan Lalonde high short side.
Justin Cloutier gave the Greyhounds the lead at 12:35 when he skated into the slot and took a pass from Connor Clattenburg before beating Lalonde high glove side.
Kirill Kudryavtsev added to the lead at 14:39 when jumped into the play late and took a pass from Marco Mignosa before beating Lalonde 5-hole to make it 3-1 Greyhounds.
The Sault took a 4-1 lead when Bryce McConnell-Barker went to the net, took a pass from Kudryavtsev and beat Lalonde with a backhand at 5:39 of the second period.
Just 55 seconds later, Ethan Hay went to the net and redirected a pass from Hunter Haight past Schenkel to make it a 4-2 game.
Saginaw pulled to within one when Braden Hache skated into the Sault zone as the late man on a rush, took a pass from Matyas Sapovaliv, and proceeded to beat Schenkel high glove side.
The Spirit sent the game to overtime with 5.6 seconds to go in regulation time when Misa scored on a loose puck in the slot after a point shot by Roberto Mancini was partially blocked.
Kudryavtsev had a goal and an assist offensively for the Greyhounds.
Schenkel made 20 saves for the Greyhounds prior to stopping all three Saginaw shooters in the shootout.
Dean called Schenkel a “beast” in the victory.
“He made two massive saves in the first period, and we could have been down 2-0 early,” Dean added. “And the shootout speaks for itself.”
Asked about playing in shootouts, Schenkel said he looks to have fun with them.
“I just try to stay loose and have fun with it,” Schenkel said. “I take it as a challenge. Pressure is a privilege and competing in high-pressure situations is a lot of fun. I love every second of it and this was a great team win.”
Sirizzotti called scoring the shootout winner “honestly great” but added that “it doesn’t happen without Schenks stopping all three Saginaw shots.”
Misa had two goals and an assist to lead the way offensively for the Spirit.
Hache added one of each while Haight had a pair of helpers.
Lalonde made 22 saves.
The Greyhounds wrap up the weekend road trip on Saturday night in Flint with a game at the Dort Financial Center against the Flint Firebirds.
The Greyhounds will take an 8-5-0-0 record into that game.
Meanwhile, Saginaw falls to 4-4-0-1 with Friday’s loss.