It took a reset after 20 minutes, but trusting their gameplan helped the Soo Greyhounds on Wednesday night.
After a slow start, the Greyhounds rebounded to pick up a 2-0 win on the road against the Saginaw Spirit Wednesday at the Dow Event Center in Saginaw.
The start to the game was less than ideal for the Greyhounds, who were outshot 16-4 by the Spirit in the opening period, which included and early 5-on-3 for the Spirit
“The first was not up to our standard,” said Greyhounds assistant coach Brendan Taylor, who ran the bench with Daniel Nikandrov in the absence of coach John Dean. “Anytime you take that many penalties, you give the opposition a lot of momentum, even though we did an excellent job killing them.”
“Definitely we started real slow,” Allard said. “It’s definitely hard to get momentum with all the penalties we took.”
Allard added that killing off the 5-on-3 helped the Greyhounds gather some momentum heading into the second period but added that “we need to be better.”
“We need to start on time,” Allard added.
The difference over the final two periods was on the simple side for the Greyhounds.
“We started to trust our gameplan,” Taylor said.
Taylor called the first intermission “a little bit of a reset.”
“The biggest (message) was our puck management,” Taylor added. “We knew how aggressive their D are pinching and in the neutral zone.
“We did a real poor job of managing the puck in the neutral zone and all of those turnovers just feed a team like that who wants to go back on the attack,” Taylor added.
“The decisions we started to make in the neutral zone allowed us to get in on the forecheck. We’re an excellent forechecking and hunting team,” Taylor said. “On the flip side, we’re not going to feed a very good transition team an opportunity to transition on us quickly in the neutral zone.”
“We were just playing simple,’ Allard said of the final 40 minutes. “We weren’t turning the puck over as much at the blueline. We were sticking to our identity. We’re a fast team and when we use our legs on the forecheck, that generates for us. The energy got brought up.”
In addition to the 16-save opening period, goaltender Landon Miller stopped 38 shots for the shutout.
“It’s a point to build momentum,” Miller said of his opening period. “The boys did a good job on the penalty kill limiting the amount of Grade A’s they gave up. I made some key saves, but we did a good job limiting their chances, especially on that 5-on-3.”
Asked about his confidence level in the game, Miller reflected on previous experience to draw that confidence from.
“That comes from practice and comes from habits and being there before,” Miller said. “Having the belief that I’ve done it before, it comes off confident and calm.”
“Millsy was terrific,” Taylor said. “He really held us in in the first period with all the penalties we took. He was outstanding on the 5-on-3. He really held us in the game and allowed us to regroup in the first and find our game because he was playing so well.”
“Without him, we don’t win that game,” Taylor added.
Taylor also said that part of the coaches message prior to the game was “who do we play for?”
“What is our relationship with those guys? John Dean is our leader and someone who we all look up to. It’s hurting him not to be on the bench doing what he loves to do,” Taylor said.
“Guys who are either injured or suspended are dying to be out and it hurts even more when you’re not playing when your teammates or staff are out there battling and you’re not allowed to join them,” Taylor added. “That was part of our messaging. Let’s do it for those guys. Those guys would love to be out there with you.”
After the teams skated through the opening period scoreless, it was the Greyhounds who got on the board first in the second period.
Allard gave the Greyhounds a 1-0 lead at 11:11 of the middle stanza as he circled near the blueline and proceeded to beat Spirit goaltender Andrew Oke with a shot from the top of the left circle glove side.
“I saw Caeden Carlisle down the left side, the puck got rimmed around and I tried to fill in for him and he made a nice play to me, bringing the puck back up top,” Allard said. “I had lots of time and space and skated in a couple of strides. There were bodies in front of the net and were doing a good job screening (Oke). I just saw a lane and let it fly.”
It was the lone goal either team would see until Justin Cloutier capped off the scoring with 61 seconds to go in the third period. The veteran forward potted an empty net goal to seal the win for the Greyhounds.
Carlisle assisted on both Sault goals in the victory.
For the Spirit, Oke made 25 saves in the loss.
The Greyhounds have an off day on Thursday before continuing their road trip Friday night in Kitchener against the Rangers. The trip then wraps up on Saturday night in Owen Sound against the Attack.
Wednesday’s victory pulls the Greyhounds record back to the .500 mark as the team improves to 13-13-0-0 through 26 games.
Saginaw falls to 14-12-1-0 with the loss.
Both teams were minus some key players in the game on Wednesday.
The Greyhounds played the game minus Spencer Evans, Noel Nordh, and Christopher Brown due to injuries.
The Greyhounds were also without forward Brady Martin, who was suspended for his hit on North Bay Battalion forward Nolan Laird on Saturday night in the Sault. Martin was suspended three games by the OHL and is slated to return to the lineup next Wednesday when the Greyhounds host the Sudbury Wolves.
Dean served the opening game Wednesday of a two-game ban imposed by the league and will also miss Friday’s game before returning behind the bench on Saturday night in Owen Sound.
For the Spirit, the team was already without veteran defenceman James Guo, who was serving the third game of a four-game suspension while forward Michael Misa was out serving a one-game suspension for an incident during Saginaw’s win over the Sarnia Sting on Sunday.