After giving up a total of four goals in the final two periods on Friday, January 28th to the visiting Flint Firebirds in a 5 – 4 overtime loss, the first-place west division (22-12-3-1) Soo Greyhounds returned to action on January 29th against the third-place central division (20-9-3) Barrie Colts who hold the Ontario Hockey League league leading road record with 11-2-1 heading into Saturday’s contest.
With the Colts on a powerplay 21 seconds past the halfway mark of the first period, Ethan Cardwell catches a bouncing puck of the boards to the right of Greyhound net to backhand the opening goal underneath a sprawling Soo netminder Samuel Ivanov to give Barrie a 1 – 0 lead. Nathan Allensen and Evan Vierling drew the assists on Cardwell’s 12th of the season. From Barrie goaltender Mack Guzda’s net, Rory Kerins wraps the tying goal into the back of the Colts net between Guzda’s left pad and post to even the game 1 – 1 at 15:53 of the first. Bryce McConnell – Barker and Tye Kartye had the contributors on Kerins’ 24th of the season. Greyhound blueliner Jack Thompson bounces the second Soo goal off of a Barrie defenseman to find the back of the Guzda’s net 3:06 into the middle stanza to give the Soo their one lead back. Tye Kartye and Kirill Kudryavtsev notched the helpers on Thompson’s ninth of the 2021 – 2002 season.
Barrie’s Nathan Allensen fires a snapshot on the Greyhound net for Hunter Haight to pick up the rebound off of Ivanov to pull the Colts even 2 – 2 at 17:54 to send the visitors into the second intermission tied. Brandt Clarke had the second assist on Haight’s 11th of the season. 33 seconds into a five-minute powerplay, Greyhound Kalvyn Watson fires a backhand no look pass from the left side of Guzda’s net to Ryan O’Rourke to lift the Soo’s third past the Colt goaltender at 9:03 of the third. Rory Kerins added the other contributor on O’Rourke’s fifth of the season. With 0:009 seconds remaining in the game and scramble in front of the Soo’s crease with Ivanov sprawled across the crease, Brandt Clarke slide the third and tying goal for the Colts to tie the game 3 – 3 with Oliver Smith and Allensen drawing the assists on Clarke’s eighth of the season. From just inside the left blueline 46 seconds into the extra period, Kerins fires a shot along the ice to find the back of the Colts net through Guzda’s five hole to give the Soo a 4 – 3 overtime win. O’Rourke and Kartye notch the helpers on Kerins second of the game. Barrie goaltender Mack Guzda turned away 30 of 34 shots in the Colts loss while Soo rookie Greyhound Samuel Ivanov stopped 23 of 26 shots in the 4 – 3 overtime win.
The Greyhounds now take their 0-0 win/loss into Thursday, February 3rd matchup in North Bay against the Battalion for a 7:00 p.m start.
Photo Bob Davies
