With just one point separating the top two teams in the west division the first place (14-9-1) Soo Greyhounds (29 points) hit the ice for their second to last game of 2021 in Windsor on Thursday, December 16th against the second place (12-8-2-2) Spitfires who sit back on one point behind the visiting Greyhounds in OHL west division action.
With the Spitfires on a powerplay 1:41 into the game, Matthew Maggio catches a cross ice pass to sink Windsor’s first past Greyhound netminder Tucker Tynan from the left faceoff circle under Tynan’s left pad to give the hosts a 1 – 0 lead. Wyatt Johnson and Louka Henault had the assists on Maggio’s ninth of the season. From the left blueline, Henault fires a pass to Daniel D’Amico to sinks the Spitfires second past Tynan at 10:14 of the opening period. Henualt had the lone helper on D’Amico’s seventh of the season to give the hosts a 2 – 0 lead. With the Soo on a powerplay, Robert Calisti fires a wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle to find the back over Spitfire goaltender Kyle Downey’s shoulder to pull the Greyhounds within one at the 8:33 mark of the middle stanza. Jacob Holmers and Jordan D’Intino registered the contributors on Calisti’s eleventh of the season.
26 seconds past the midway mark of the period, Windsor’s Wyatt Johnson scores the Spitfires third of the contest with a snapshot from the right faceoff circle over Tynan’s blocker to bring the lead to 3 – 1. Michael Renwick had the lone assist on Johnston’s 16th of the season. Closing the gap to one at 13:51 of the second, Tye Kartye scores his 22nd of the season after lifting the Greyhounds second over a sprawling Downey with Justin Cloutier and Jacob Holmer drawing the helpers on Kartye’s goal. With the visitors on a powerplay 5:54 into the final period, rookie Marco Mignosa sinks his sixth of the season to tie the game 3 – 3 under Downey’s pad. D’Intino and Calisti setup Mignosa powerplay marker to send the game into overtime. With a turnover at the Greyhound blueline, Louka Henault picks up a loose puck to create a two on one for the Spitfires to sink the gamewinner behind Tynan to give Windsor a 4 – 3 overtime win and pull the Spitfires even the west division standings with the Soo for 30 points. Johnston had the lone contributor on Henault’s fifth of the season 24 seconds into the extra period. Windsor goaltender Kyle Downey stopped 29 of 32 while Soo netminder Tucker Tynan turning away 42 of 46 shots in the overtime loss to the Spitfires.
Greyhounds Andrew Gibson told Saultsports that “obviously making your OHL debut is a very special moment but being able to do that in my hometown being watched by my friends and family was an amazing opportunity for me. I thought the guys came out a little slow in the first but picked it up in the second and started to play a bit more physical. Tucker played a really good game between the pipes and kept us in it. It’s hard to lose in overtime but hopefully we can turn things around tomorrow.”
The Greyhounds will round out their 2021 portion of the season with a stop in Kitchener on Friday, December 17th when they meet the Rangers in a 7:30 p.m puck drop.
