Mistakes prove costly for Greyhounds against OHL's best

They hope it will be a learning experience for an inexperienced team. The Soo Greyhounds kept pace with the London Knights for 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon before the Knights pulled away. With the game tied at two midway through the second period, London scored five of the next six goals in the game to beat the Greyhounds by a 7-3 margin in Ontario Hockey League play at the GFL Memorial Gardens.

Against a Knights team considered to be among the elite not just in the OHL this season, but across the Canadian Hockey League, Greyhounds coach John Dean said he felt he got “a really good 40 minutes” from his team in the setback. While not capitalizing on a pair of lengthy 5-on-3 man advantages in the opening period was concerning, Dean said he was “super excited” about the opening period otherwise. “In the second period, we created a lot of opportunities,” Dean added.



“We were pressing their D corps in a very good way. We had two goals against happen where we got beat back to our end. It’s something London does very well.

They make nice little plays out of their end and you have to make sure you stay on top of their second defenceman because he will jump up into the rush.” The final 10 minutes of the second period is where the game changed after some costly blunders made it 4-2. Dean said “if you take those mistakes away, the rest of the shifts were good.

The energy was good.” “I do think we had a volume of chances, which is what we’re trying to do here,” he added. “I do think our guys got frustrated when they didn’t score.

” Dean said the frustration offensively seemed to come in the second half of the middle period. Disappointment for the Greyhounds settled in further in the third period. “It tells me as a coach that we’re not quite there in the belief of who we are as a team,” Dean said.

“We thought we played a good 40. We addressed the two mistakes on the goals against. We thought we were generating with the style of play that we asked for.

Teams that really think they’re ready to take that next step and be a threatening team, they play the same way for the third period. They pout their foot on the gas and get more excited about it.” He added that he felt the Greyhounds looked "passive" in the final 20 minutes.

“This is an opportunity for us to learn about killer instinct and what it takes to be a winning hockey club,” Dean said. “The lesson learned is that when you take a break against top end teams, they’re going to make you pay.” Greyhounds captain Caeden Carlisle said he was “pretty impressed” with the way the Greyhounds came out of the gate in the game.

“That’s probably one of the better starts we’ve had all year,” Carlisle said. “(The game) just slowly seemed to slip out of our hands.” “D zone structure started to slip a ton, rush coverage, it just seemed like, by the end of the game, they had the puck the whole time,” he added.

Carlisle said the two quick goals the Knights got in the second period tipped the game in the away team's favour. “We lost some energy throughout the game (after the quick goals),” Carlisle added. No members of the Knights coaching staff were available to speak to the media following the game.

After killing off a pair of 5-on-3’s, London opened the scoring as Landon Sim banged in a loose puck at the edge of the crease to give London a 1-0 lead at 12:34 of the opening period. The Greyhounds tied the game while shorthanded as Justin Cloutier beat Knights goaltender Austin Elliott glove side at 17:32. A 2-1 lead was then taken by the Greyhounds in the second period as Cloutier got the puck and skated into the slot before taking a shot that handcuffed Elliot glove side at 7:33.

London tied the game at two as Cam Allen beat Nolan Lalonde from the right circle on a rebound of a Sam O’Reilly deflection on the next shift. The Knights took a 3-2 lead as Oliver Bonk skated into the left faceoff circle and beat Lalonde high glove side at 12:19. Evan Van Gorp then made it 4-2 for London as he beat Lalonde off a back-door pass from Dickinson with 1:07 to go in the period.

Blake Montgomery extended the Knights lead to 5-2 1:59 into the third period as he beat Lalonde through traffic from the high slot. Dickinson added to London’s lead at 6:17 of the third when he beat Lalonde on a nice pass from O’Reilly. The goal ended Lalonde’s day as Landon Miller entered the game in goal for the Sault.

Chase Reid made it a 6-3 game at 17:21 of the third when he beat Elliott with a shot from the top of the right circle before Kasper Halttunen capped off the scoring with a power play goal with 10 seconds to go as he beat Miller with a shot from the left faceoff circle off a rebound of a Henry Brzustewicz shot initially. In addition to the two-goal day from Cloutier, Jordan Charron assisted on a pair of goals for the Greyhounds in the loss. Lalonde stopped 28 of 34 shots before exiting the game for the Greyhounds.

Miller stopped six of the seven shots he faced the rest of the way. Elliott made 25 saves for the Knights. Dickinson had a goal and two assists for the Knights offensively.

Allen, Montgomery, and Sim chipped in with a goal and an assist each while O’Reilly, Brzustewicz, and Jacob Julien assisted on a pair of goals each for London. The Greyhounds continue a four-game homestand on Wednesday night with a game against the Kitchener Rangers before wrapping up the stretch on Friday night against the Brantford Bulldogs. With the loss, the Greyhounds fall to 19-25-1-0 and remain six points up on the Owen Sound Attack for eighth in the OHL’s Western Conference.

The Greyhounds sit two points behind the Sarnia Sting and three points behind the Flint Firebirds. London improves to 37-7-1-0 with Sunday’s victory. On the injury front for the Greyhounds, veteran forward Christpher Brown missed both weekend games and remains out week-to-week.

Brady T. Smith left Friday’s game due to injury and Dean said the rookie forward is out day-to-day with an upper body injury. High-scoring forwards Easton Cowan and Denver Barkey both missed the game for the Knights.

Cowan missed the game due to injury while the reason for Barkey wasn't released. Barkey was initially listed as being in the lineup and scratched prior to warmup..