A roller coaster season continued Wednesday for the Soo Greyhounds in a home ice setback against the Erie Otters
The most consistent thing about the Soo Greyhounds this season has been inconsistency.
Greyhounds coach John Dean has spoken at times of how the team has been a lot like a roller coaster and on Wednesday night, that roller coaster took a dive.
The Erie Otters used a pair of goals early in the third period to put the Greyhounds behind the eight ball and eventually sealed a 5-2 win Wednesday in Ontario Hockey League play at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
Dean called the start of the third period “the story of our team right now and (it’s that) we have a ton of individual mistakes happening inside of our team game.”
Erie scored a pair of goals in the opening minutes of the third period to take a 3-1 lead before adding to the lead later in the frame.
The initial goal, which made it a 2-1 game 70 seconds into the third, came off a lost battle in front of the net while a neutral zone turnover on the next shift led to the Greyhounds facing a 3-1 deficit.
“We’re death by a million cuts when we play back just individual mistake after individual mistake,” Dean said. “It becomes a very difficult brand of hockey to play when the other four guys don’t know what you’re doing. It’s very tough.”
For the Otters, the early goals in the third came off the visitors being able to take advantage of the situations.
“It was back and forth for quite some time, but I felt some big ones (coming) early just based off the aggressiveness of putting some pressure on their defence and (we were) able to finally turn something into a goal,” said Erie coach Kris Mallette.
A team that has struggled at times early this season, Mallette added that success has come from a buy-in from the players.
“Our guys are definitely buying into the systems we’re trying to put into plays and they’re seeing rewards because of it,” Mallette said.
Dean said he was “extremely impressed” by the Otters.
“Very organized, (they) compete exceptionally hard,” Dean added. “In the first period, there’s no doubt in my mind, we got completely outworked by a very hungry hockey team.”
Asked if he felt the Otters outworked the Greyhounds throughout the game, Dean agreed that his team got outworked in parts of the game.
“We’re lucky enough to be in a tie after the first period,” Dean said. “I like our second period. There’s mistakes inside the second, but at least we have a little push. In the third, we’re back to the first period rules again. We got outworked.”
A shorthanded goal by the Greyhounds opened the scoring in the first period as Noah Laus took a pass from Brady Smith on an odd-man situation deep in the Erie zone and beat Otters goaltender Charlie Burns glove side at 16:18.
On the next shift, and with the Greyhounds still shorthanded, Brett Hammond took a pass in the left faceoff circle from Ales Misiak and beat Sault goaltender Landon Miller glove side to tie the game at one 35 seconds later.
After a scoreless second period, Erie wasted little time taking the lead in the third period.
Gabriel Frasca took a sharp angle shot from the left side that was stopped by Miller. Dylan Edwards proceeded to score on the rebound from the slot to make it a 2-1 game 1:10 into the third.
The Otters took a 3-1 lead on the next shift as Edwards hit Hammond with a pass in the slot and the latter proceeded to beat Miller glove side 56 seconds later.
Erie made it a 4-1 game at 7:15 with the teams playing four-on-four. McLean Agrette skated into the Greyhounds zone down the left wing, cut into the slot and beat Miller glove side.
The Greyhounds cut the Erie led to 4-2 at 10:14 when Jordan Charron deflected a long shot from Christopher Brown past Burns.
Wesley Royston capped off the scoring with an empty net goal for the Otters with two minutes to go in the third period.
For the Greyhounds, Miller stopped 26 of 30 shots in the loss.
In addition to the two-goal night from Hammond, Edwards had a goal and two assists for the Otters while Misiak and Frasca had two assists each.
A local product, Burns stopped 28 shots for the Otters in the victory.
“It’s a tough role as a backup goaltender. He’s had this marked on his calendar for quite some time,” Mallette said, adding that he let Burns know early on that he was getting the start in Wednesday’s game, marking his first start as an OHL goalie in the Sault.
“The guys were ecstatic for him, and you could tell they were paying a little more attention,” Mallette also said. “Our goaltending has been great this year. They’re the least of our worries and tonight, to get him his first start here and his first win, that’s a big moment for him.”
The Greyhounds return to action on Friday night at home when they host the Peterborough Petes for the only time this season.
Wednesday’s loss drops the Greyhounds record to 8-6-0-0 on the season while the Otters improve to 4-8-1-0.
The Greyhounds got some good news on Wednesday morning as the NHL’s Nashville Predators announced that forward Brady Martin has been returned to the team after starting the season in pro hockey.
“It was time to come back,” Martin said in an interview on the Greyhounds official website. “Whatever was going to happen when they made the decision, I was happy with.”
Martin suited up in three games for the Predators prior to the announcement, picking up an assist in the process.
Martin was selected fifth overall by the Predators in last summer’s entry draft.