Two streaks came to an end for the Soo Greyhounds on Thursday night.
A 2-1 Ontario Hockey League loss to the Saginaw Spit at the Dow Event Center in Saginaw ended a stretch of seven consecutive games without a regulation loss, and four-straight overtime contests for the Greyhounds.
A goal by Sault Ste. Marie native Calem Mangone with 6:06 to go in regulation time was the difference for the Spirit in the game.
Greyhounds coach John Dean said fatigue was “a bit of a factor” in the game but also said the game remained a winnable one for the West Division leaders.
“There’s no reason why not,” Dean said. “I didn’t mind our first period. We traded chances a little bit too much for my liking. We definitely deteriorated as the game went on but that was a winnable hockey game. They had four defenceman and a defenceman who is regularly a forward.”
Veteran defenceman Robert Calisti added that some missed chances in the game turned out to be a difference as well for the visitors.
“We were pretty good for the most part,” said overage defenceman Robert Calisti. “Some sloppy play led us to not being connected in the offensive zone, but we were pretty good for the most part. A couple of missed chances lost us the game.”
The teams nearly played through a scoreless opening period, but it was Saginaw forward Matyas Sapovaliv who opened the scoring very late in the period.
With just two seconds to go in the frame, the import forward one-timed a pass from Camaryn Baber from below the goal line past Greyhounds starter Tucker Tynan to give the Spirit the lead heading into the intermission.
Despite chances for both clubs in the middle period, the West Division rivals played through a scoreless frame before the Greyhounds got on the board early in the third.
A defensive zone breakdown by the Spirit led to a two-on-none down low for the Greyhounds and Bryce McConnell-Barker hit Marco Mignosa in the slot.
Mignosa proceeded to beat Saginaw starter Andrew Oke high glove 48 seconds into the third to tie the game at one.
Mangone gave Saginaw a 2-1 lead with just over six minutes to go in regulation when he beat Tynan from the slot in traffic.
Oke made 25 saves for the Spirit in the victory while Tynan stopped 28 shots for the Greyhounds
“Both goaltenders played well,” Dean said. “We pride ourselves on being an aggressive team, being on top of pucks and taking away options of the other team. As the game went on, we gave them a lot of ice to play with and you could see they started entering our zone easier and having a little bit of zone time against us. Our style of play got away from us a little bit in the second and the third.”
“Their goalie played well,” Mignosa said. “He stopped a lot of quality chances. We have to bear down (in the scoring areas).”
Dean added that he felt the Greyhounds gave the Spirit too much time and space at times in the game.
“We’re a team that prides ourselves on a really good half-ice game and taking away time and space quickly and being on top of options,” Dean said. “As the second and third periods went on, we really got away from that and gave them a lot of space to play with. That’s a hard-working team that competed hard against us. They compete hard every night and got rewarded for it.”
Baber assisted on both Saginaw goals in the game.
The Greyhounds fall to 16-10-2-0 with the loss though the team remains two points ahead of the Windsor Spitfires atop the OHL’s West Division. The Spitfires were idle on Thursday night.
The Spitfires were scheduled to face the Guelph Storm in Guelph Thursday, but the game was postponed earlier in the day due to COVID-19 protocols affecting the Spitfires, which also led to the postponement of Windsor’s scheduled game on Friday against the Flint Firebirds.
With the win, the Spirit improve to 13-13-1-0 and pull to within one point of the Firebirds in the West Division.
The Greyhounds are slated to return to action n Sunday afternoon in the first of back-to-back games on the road against the Sudbury Wolves. Puck drop is set for 2 p.m.
The teams will the meet again on Tuesday night in the first of three makeup games after the clubs had games earlier this season postponed due to COVID protocols within the Wolves organization.