Special teams can be the difference between winning and losing a hockey game and for the Soo Greyhounds, a dominant power play and key penalty kills helped the team advance in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs.
On Wednesday night the Greyhounds scored a pair of power play goals and kept the Saginaw Spirit scoreless on four power play opportunities in a series-clinching 5-3 victory at the Dow Event Center in Saginaw.
The win sends the Greyhounds to round two after a four-game sweep of the Spirit.
A power play goal by defenceman Conor Timmins in the opening minute of the third period was the eventual game-winner for the Greyhounds.
“We’re hungry for pucks and really working hard and that’s generating a lot for us,” Timmins said of the power play efficiency in the series.
On the flip side, Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister called the Greyhounds penalty kill “excellent in the second period.”
“Something we talked about was specialty teams at this time of year,” Bannister said, referring to both the power play and penalty kill. “Your special teams are going to have to win you games or keep you in games at some point.”
Greyhounds forward Boris Katchouk, who scored three times in the victory, called the penalty kill “massive.”
“It gives us momentum when the penalty kill is strong out there,” Katchouk said.
“The penalty kill, all series, but especially today when we were down early and took a couple penalties, the penalty kill came though,” Greyhounds captain Tim Gettinger said, adding that the early game kills “kept us in the game.”
Gettinger and Timmins had a goal and an assist each for the Greyhounds while goaltender Matthew Villalta made 15 saves.
“We beat a desperate team,” Katchouk said. “We pushed back when they had their push.”
“They played us hard,” Gettinger said of the Spirit. “It’s big for us to win (the series) in four games. It gives us a little break here before the next round.”
Timmins called the rest important as well.
“We’re looking to go on a long run so getting the rest is huge,” Timmins said.
“Rest is always a good thing,” Bannister said. “These days are important for us at whatever time of the season we are. At this time, it’s important for the rest and for injuries. It gives other guys a chance to heal up too.”
D.J. Busdeker had a pair of goals for Saginaw. Cole Coskey had the other goal for the Spirit. Blade Jenkins assisted on two Saginaw goals.
Overage netminder Evan Cormier stopped 23 shots for the Spirit.
“We played hard right until the end,” Spirit Coach Troy Smith said on the Spirit television broadcast following the game. “It would have been really easy to quit when they went up by a couple of goals, but we kept coming at them.”
Smith called the game four loss Saginaw’s best effort in the series.
“We were at our best tonight, but it just wasn’t good enough,” Smith said.
In other action around the league on Wednesday night, Nicolas Mattinen scored a pair of goals as the Hamilton Bulldogs took a 3-1 series lead over the Ottawa 67’s thanks to a 5-2 victory in Ottawa.
The Guelph Storm evened its series with the Kitchener Rangers at two games apiece Wednesday thanks to a 6-4 win in Guelph. Liam Hawel had two goals and an assist while Isaac Ratcliffe also had a pair of goals for the Storm. Storm netminder Anthony Popovich made 39 saves. Joseph Garreffa scored twice for the Rangers while Logan Brown assisted on three goals.