It wasn't the start new Soo Greyhounds coach Craig Hartsburg was looking for, but he now knows what work needs to be done in order to get the team into the situation he and the players expect to be in.
The Hounds, playing their first game since the firing of Marty Abrams and hiring of Hartsburg, dropped an 8-3 decision at the hands of the Windsor Spitfires on Friday night at Memorial Gardens in front of a crowd of over 3,200 that greeted Hartsburg to a warm welcome back prior to the start of the game.
After Jacob King opened the scoring 6:39 into the opening period by deflecting a Jordan Smith point shot past Spits starter Kyle Kenechtel, Windsor proceeded to score three unanswered goals to take a 3-1 lead into the intermission.
Brian Soso opened the Windsor scoring at 7:28, while David Lomas, named second star in the game, then converted on a loose puck at 11:41. The goal came moments after Windsor defenceman Jonathan Sciacca hit the post on a point shot. John Scott Dickson, who had a big night for Windsor, scored at 18:57 to make the lead 3-1.
Windsor added on two more goals in the second period as Dickson picked up his second goal of the evening just under six minutes into the period. Tom Mannino put the Hounds in a deep hole by scoring at 19:14 to give the Spitfires a commanding 5-1 lead through two periods.
After Jason Dixon scored to give Windsor a 6-1 lead with a power play goal 1:04 into the third period, the Hounds began to show some life and a Martin Tuma power play goal at 7:18, followed shortly thereafter by a Chris Lawrence goal at 8:36 brought the Hounds to within three.
Dickson, with his third of the night at 12:51 and Lomas, with his second of the night at 15:26 capped off the scoring as Windsor took the game by an 8-3 final, despite being outshot 19-6 in the third period, and 39-26 overall, by the Hounds.
Following the game, Hartsburg commented on some of the problems the Greyhounds had during his first game behind the bench.
"We weren't hungry enough to keep the puck," the veteran coach said. "Any time there was a loose puck battle, we lost it. There were coverage problems as well. At times we looked unorganized."
Hartsburg did say that rolling four lines, which he did for much of the game, was important.
"That's important for us," Hartsburg said. "We want to give everyone a chance to play, but certainly we have a lot of work to do. This is basically a new start as far as coaching is concerned. I want to fix the problem. It's about trying to find solutions on how to fix things."
In the goaltending department, Hartsburg did not lay any blame towards Jakub Cech, who got the start, but was pulled after two periods in favour of rookie Kyle Gajewski. Hartsburg said the veteran netminder "looked nervous."
He added that the game was lost in a number of facets aside from just goaltending.
On the night, Cech turned aside 15 shots through two periods while Gajewski turned away three Spitfire shots in the third. Knechtel stopped 36 Hounds shots for the win.
The Hounds, with their first game under Hartsburg behind them, will now prepare to face the Saginaw Spirit on Sunday night at Memorial Gardens at 7 p.m.