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A 5-2 loss to the bottom-feeding Erie Otters showed all the usual warts that have developed in the Greyhounds’ young season
Published Oct 23, 2025 • 5 minute read
Soo Greyhounds forward Jeremy Martin (9) skates in OHL action against the Erie Otters on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025 at GFL Memorial Gardens in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Photo by JANSON DUENCH/The Sault StarArticle content
Win. Loss. Win. Loss. Win. Loss.
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That’s a summary of the Soo Greyhounds’ last two-and-a-half weeks, a trend of inconsistency that continued with Wednesday’s 5-2 loss to the bottom-feeding Erie Otters.
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In a 1-1 game that was theirs for the taking after 40 minutes, the Hounds lost the game in a span of two minutes at the beginning of third, surrendering a pair of goals with a pair of mistakes in quick succession.
“We shot ourselves in the foot once again,” winger Travis Hayes said. “Too many mistakes.”
Head coach John Dean has already put many words to his team’s recent inability to string together two good games back-to-back, but he found some more to describe the latest example.
“Good game, bad game, good game, bad game,” he said. “If we challenge them, they play well. And if we go on business as usual, we get a game like tonight.”
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The Hounds, who Dean said were “completely outworked,” were ultimately undone by errors at the worst time early in the third period.
Just barely a minute into the frame, and despite having three defencemen on the ice, no Otters players were covered during a sequence that gave Erie its first lead of the game, courtesy of Dylan Edwards.
Moments later, defenceman Harris Pangretitsch delivered a tape-to-tape pass to Edwards in the neutral zone, resulting in Brett Hammond extending the Otters’ lead.
“We’re death by a million cuts,” said Dean, whose team dropped to a 8-6-0-0 record. “We play back individual mistake after individual mistake after individual mistake. It becomes a very difficult brand of hockey to play when the other four guys don’t know what you’re doing.”
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According to overage winger Marco Mignosa, that brand of hockey has been on display for a while now. Fresh in everyone’s minds is their sloppy 4-2 loss to the Sudbury Wolves last Friday. It was followed up with a 3-1 win at home, but that wasn’t a full course correction.
“We haven’t been happy with our game this past stretch,” said Mignosa, who played his 250th game in a Hounds jersey, tying him with Hayden Verbeek for 14th all-time. “Even though we won a couple games, we still aren’t happy with it. We have to play for a full 60 minutes without lapses.
“We haven’t even come close to meeting our standard yet.”
Soo Greyhounds forward Marco Mignosa (26) carries the puck in OHL action against the Erie Otters on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025 at GFL Memorial Gardens in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Photo by JANSON DUENCH/The Sault Star
For much of the game on Wednesday, the Hounds were just one quick strike away from running away into the night. Six power-play opportunities were bestowed upon them, including three in the third period, and all six combined to feature some of their worst hockey of the night.
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“We start to see some good things happening, and then we go on our own page, pucks get bobbled, we throw pucks three feet behind guys, we force plays,” Dean said.
The unit has gone 2-for-31 over their last six games and 0-for-14 in their last three. After Wednesday’s loss, the Greyhounds’ power play sank to dead-last in the OHL at 12.5 per cent efficiency.
Mignosa said the power play needs to “bear down, get dirty, and get hungry” around the net, but much of what ails the man advantage is happening long before they get anywhere close to the net.
The team’s strategy from the beginning of the year has been built upon a specific zone entry that features a series of cascading drop passes through the neutral zone, intended to give the team speed entering the offensive zone.
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Instead, pucks are often working their way backwards from a speeding player to a teammate who is not only standing still, but much further from entering the zone. When they do gain the zone, pucks cycle the perimeter until an errant pass restarts the cycle.
It’s all resulted in much of the labour of penalty killing being done by the Hounds’ own man advantage.
“It’s just a whole predictability thing that we’re not clicking on right now,” Mignosa said.
With the news of Brady Martin’s return to Sault Ste. Marie being announced on Wednesday morning, some of the Hounds’ special teams woes may be remedied with someone of his talent and determination running the operation.
But Dean warned against the idea of the Hounds becoming a one-trick pony. As skilled as Martin is, he won’t magically solve the team’s broader issues.
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“I don’t want that to be our group story: ‘Oh, great, Brady’s back, and now we’re all going to be better,’” he said. “We have to take some ownership over our individual games.
“Of course, Brady is going to be a huge boost for the group, and everyone’s going to be excited, but if we’re leaning on one player to fix this, it’s not right. We want to make sure these guys are motivating themselves.”
While the Hounds didn’t offer Sault hockey fans much to be proud of, the city’s homegrown product, Charlie Burns, certainly did.
The Soo Greyhounds AAA alumnus stopped 28 of 30 shots for the Otters in his first OHL start at GFL Memorial Gardens.
Soo Greyhounds forward Travis Hayes attempts to screen Erie Otters goaltender Charlie Burns during OHL action on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025 at GFL Memorial Gardens in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Photo by JANSON DUENCH/The Sault Star
“He’s had this marked on his calendar for quite some time,” said Erie head coach Kris Mallette. “I let him know long in advance that he’s getting the start here, and the guys were ecstatic for him and you could tell they were paying a little more attention. To get him his first start here and his first win, that’s a big moment for him.”
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At the opposite end of the rink, Landon Miller was stellar through 40 minutes, but was given little support in the third period as his teammates’ turnovers and mistakes became too much to overcome. He finished the game with 26 saves on 30 shots.
Rookie Noah Laus kicked off the scoring in the first period on a short-handed marker off a beautiful no-look pass from Brady R. Smith. The goal earned Laus some praise from his coach, but at the expense of pretty well everyone who isn’t 16 years old.
Soo Greyhounds forward Noah Laus skates to the becnh after scoring in the first period against the Erie Otters in OHL action on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025 at GFL Memorial Gardens in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Photo by JANSON DUENCH/The Sault Star
“Two games in a row, our 16-year-olds have been the best players on the ice,” Dean said, also referencing Ryan Kaczynski’s two-goal effort against Sudbury. “Noah Laus and Ryan Kaczynski can’t be the two best players on the ice two games in a row.”
The bench boss noted that outside of Jordan Charron, who in the third period tallied his 11th goal in just 14 games to take sole possession of the OHL scoring lead, the team’s veterans have been too quiet.
Another problem Martin might be able to help with.
Dean said he expects the 18-year-old star to suit up on Friday when the Hounds host the Peterborough Petes.
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