Photo Bob Davies (Soo Greyhounds)
In their first Ontario Hockey League action since Saturday, December 17th, the fifth place (10-12-5-4) Soo Greyhounds hit the highway for two west division road games with stops in Flint and Saginaw, Michigan on Wednesday, December 28th and Thursday, December 29th against the Flint Firebird on Wednesday evening.
Only 32 seconds into the midweek clash, Kirill Kudryavstev skates down the left side of the ice to cut across Saginaw’s crease to slide the opening goal underneath a sprawling Will Cranley to give the Soo a 1 – 0 lead. Justin Cloutier and Andrew Gibson added helpers on Kudryavstev’s fifth of the season. At 8:33 of the first, Braeden Kressler fires a snapshot from the left faceoff circle to find the back of Greyhounds’ net under netminder Samuel Ivanov’s catcher to even the game 1 – 1 for the Firebirds. Gavin Hayes and Riley Piercey had the assists on Kressler’s tying goal. In his 100th OHL regular season career game, Soo captain Bryce McConnell-Barker sinks his seventeenth of the season with a two on one for the Greyhounds to give the visitors a 2 – 1 lead at 11:22 of the period. Kavlyn Watch and Kirill Kudryavstev drew the contributors on McConnell-Barker’s goal. With a backhand pass from Amadeus Lombardi, Zacharie Giroux finds the back of Ivanov’s net under the Soo’s netminder catcher to tie the game 2 – 2 at 14:25 of the first. Coulson Pitre notched the other assist on Giroux’s tying goal. With a pass from the right corner from Firebird Dmitry Kuzmin, Gavin Hayes catches the pass to fire the go-ahead goal for Flint through Ivanov’s five hole to give the Firebirds a 3 – 2 lead 1:42 into the middle stanza. Riley Pirecey contributed on Hayes go-ahead goal. Coulson Piercey splits the Greyhound defense to break in on Ivanov to score the hosts fourth of the contest at 6:49 to bring the lead to 4 – 2. Kressler and Tristan Bertucci had the helpers on Pitre’s goal.
Tristan Bertucci increases the Firebirds’ lead to 5 – 3 at 3:49 of the third with Ethan Hay drawing the lone contributor on Bertucci’s goal from the left faceoff circle. Greyhound Jordan D’Intino picks up a Kavlyn Watson rebound on a Soo powerplay to pull the Soo within two at the five-minute mark with Marco Mignosa adding the other assist on D’Intino’s eleventh of the season. Gavin Hayes sinks his second of the game from in between the Soo faceoff circles to give the Firebirds a 6 – 3 lead at 14:08 with Kressler and Riley Pirecey setting up Flint’s sixth of the game. With 3:08 remaining the midweek contest, Kudryavstev registers his third point of the game with the Greyhounds’ fourth past Cranley to close the gap to two for the Soo. Tyler Savard had the lone contributor on Kudryavstev’s goal. With Ivanov on the Soo bench for an extra attacker, Gavin Hayes registers his second hat trick of the month with scoring the Firebirds seventh from behind the Flint blueline into an empty net to give the Firebirds a 7 – 4 win over the Greyhounds. Flint goaltender Will Cranley stopped 34 of 38 shots in the Firebirds’ win while Soo netminder Samuel Ivanov turned away 38 of 44 shots in the Greyhounds’ loss on the road.
The Soo returns to action on Thursday, December 29th to take on the second-place west division (20-9-2) Saginaw Spirit in a 7:05 p.m start. The Spirit will have Sault Ste Marie’s Calem Mangone and Lincoln Moore in the lineup to face their hometown Greyhounds in Saginaw.
