In their first game back from the holiday break, the Soo Greyhounds were overwhelmed by an aggressive Saginaw squad that scored three times in the opening period

With both teams facing the same situation, it was the Soo Greyhounds who struggled.

The unofficial second half of the Ontario Hockey League regular season kicked off on Sunday and for the Greyhounds, it was an effort they’ll look to address with an important matchup on tap.

The Saginaw Spirit scored three times in the opening period en route to a 5-1 win over the Greyhounds Sunday afternoon at the GFL Memorial Gardens.

For both teams, it was their first game coming out of the Christmas break.

“It’s one of our worst games all season,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said. “Both teams are under the same circumstances. It’s the first game back after a stretch of time off, so you don’t get to put that in your holster and use that as an excuse.

“Saginaw came out extremely hungry and we looked flat,” he added. “We lacked compete in the first period; lost every battle you could possibly imagine.”

For Spirit coach Chris Lazary, the first game coming out of the Christmas break has always been one that brings a lot of questions with it.

“This game is always the biggest question mark of what you’re going to look like,” Lazary said. “We had a good skate yesterday, which you could tell that we were probably going to have a good game today.”

Lazary credited the start by his team in the victory as well.

“We were simple early to get into a rhythm,” Lazary said.

“Our first 40, where it was predominantly five-on-five, we did a lot of good things,” he added. “They’re a hard team to play against. They’re on top, their D are sticky. They pressure you all over the ice. We just did a good job in battles, puck support, doing the little things to make sure we were getting exits and making plays.”

Dean said Saginaw didn’t make things easy on the Greyhounds in the opening period.

“They’re very good in the offensive zone,” Dean said. “They have a lot of movements, and we didn’t handle their movement very well. We have to get closes and end things early on. We don’t want to be in man-on-man situations, and they put us in man-on-man quite a bit because we couldn’t get closes early. We lost assignments and lost battles, and you spend time in your own end. By the time you get out, you don’t get to establish a forecheck because you’re changing now.”

“Defending and our returns to our defensive zone were a major issue and it snowballs into every other part of your game because you’re in your own end for too long,” Dean added.

Saginaw opened the scoring as Dimian Zhilkin took a pass in the slot from Nikita Klepov and beat Greyhounds goaltender Landon Miller stick side at 12:30 of the opening period.

The Spirit made it a 2-0 game at 16:19 when Sebastian Gervais beat Miller on a tap-in after a pass from Egor Barabanov to the right of the Sault net.

Carson Harmer made it a 3-0 game 47 seconds later as he deflected a point shot by Graydon Jones from the slot past Miller.

With 26 seconds to go in the period, the Spirit appeared to make it a 4-0 game after Josh Glavin took a pass as he entered the Sault zone from Brody Pepoy on the right side and beat Miller stick side from the high slot. The goal was reviewed and ultimately waved off due to goaltender interference.

With 1:09 to go in the second period, Barabanov officially made it 4-0 as he took a pass in the high slot from Jacob Cloutier and beat Miller stick side.

The Greyhounds would break Saginaw goaltender Stepan Shurygin’s shutout bid with 2:45 to go as Christopher Brown grabbed the puck in the slot and beat the Spirit netminder with a backhand to make it 4-1.

Gervais grabbed his second goal of the day as he capped off the scoring for the Spirit with an empty net goal 34 seconds later.

Miller stopped 32 shots for the Greyhounds.

Barabanov finished the day with a goal and two assists to pace the Spirit offensively in the victory.

Cloutier, Jones, and Klepov also had a pair of assists each for Saginaw.

Shurygin stopped 25 shots.

The Greyhounds return to action on Wednesday with a New Year’s Eve game at home against the Flint Firebirds. Puck drop for the game is set for 4:07 p.m.

With Sunday’s setback, the Greyhounds fall to 21-12-1-1 on the season while Saginaw improves to 11-16-3-4.

With the OHL’s Christmas trade freeze getting lifted on Sunday, some deals trickled in as the trade period opened again.

The Guelph Storm, slated to host next year’s Memorial Cup, completed a deal with the Kingston Frontenacs that saw former fourth overall pick Tyler Hopkins get dealt to Guelph.

In return, the Storm sent forward Alex McLean, a third round pick in 2026 (originally Saginaw’s), a fifth round pick in 2027 (originally North Bay’s), a seventh round pick in 2029, and a conditional second round pick in 2027 (originally Kitchener’s) to Kingston.

The London Knights dealt former first round pick Logan Hawery to the Sarnia Sting for forward Ryan Brown, also a former first round pick.

The Niagara IceDogs dealt Winnipeg Jets prospect Kevin He, Darcy Dewatcher, a second round pick in 2029 and a fourth round pick in 2026 (originally Brantford’s) to Flint for Chase Hull, a second round pick in 2026 (originally Peterborough’s), a second round pick in 2026 (originally Sault Ste. Marie’s), a third round pick in 2027 (originally Owen Sound’s), a third round pick in 2028 (originally Peterborough’s), a third round pick in 2029, a fourth round pick in 2028 (originally Kingston’s), and a sixth round pick in 2027.