Photo: Bob Davies
In Sault Ste Marie, Ontario on Friday, January 20th and only two points separating the visiting fifth place (19-18-2-1) Flint Firebirds, the fifth place (14-16-7-4) Soo Greyhounds took to the ice at the Memorial Gardens looking to earn their first win against the Firebirds in 2022 – 2023 season.
With Firebird goaltender Nathan Day sprawled across the ice in front of the Flint crease, Marco Mignosa fires a shot into the empty net to give the Soo a 1 – 0 lead. Christopher Brown and Caeden Carlisle notched the helpers on Mignosa’s fifth of the season with 1:24 remaining in the first period. At 12:28 of the second, Nolan Dann fires a shot over Greyhound netminder Samuel Ivanov to even the game 1 – 1 at the 12:28 mark of the second with Braeden Kressler and Dmitry Kuzmin drawing the assists on Dann’s tying goal. From the right faceoff circle all alone, Zacharie Giroux fires a wrist shot over Ivanov’s blocker for the Firebirds’ go-ahead goal at 18:43 of the period to send Flint into the second intermission up 2 – 1.
39 seconds into the final period, Nolan Dann fires his second goal of the game with a wrist shot through traffic from the right faceoff circle to bring the Firebirds a 3 – 1 lead. Gavin Hayes notched the contributor on Flint’s third goal. From the centre of the Greyhounds’ bluleine through traffic, Marko Stojkov gives the visitors a 4 – 1 lead at 13:46 with Giroux drawing the assist on Stojkov’s goal. With Ivanov on the Soo bench for an extra attacker, Gavin Hayes gives Flint a 5 – 1 win at 15:24 with Riley Piercey and Tristan Bertucci adding the contributors on Hayes empty net goal. Firebird goaltender Nathan Day stopped 26 of 27 goals in Flint’s fourth straight win of the season over the Soo. Greyhound netminder Samuel Ivanov turned away 26 of 30 shots in the Soo’s 17th loss of the 2022 – 2023 season.
The Greyhounds will now host the Hamilton Bulldogs on Saturday, January 21st in a 7:07 p.m start with the Bulldogs coming off a 5 – 2 loss in Sudbury to the Wolves on January 20th.
