Photo Bob Davies

In a midweek west division clash, the fifth place (13-16-7-4) Soo Greyhounds hosted the second place (24-14-2) Saginaw Spirit on Wednesday, January 18th in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. In the first three OHL meetings in the 2022 – 2023 season all three games have needed overtime to determine the outcome with the Soo only winning one of the three contests.

With the Greyhounds on a powerplay, Kalvyn Watson fires a cross ice pass from the left faceoff circle to Bryce McConnell-Baker in front of the Saginaw crease to slide the opening goal 6:28 into the first through Spirit goaltender Tristan Lennox’s five hole to give the Soo a 1 – 0 lead with McConell-Baker’s twenty-second goal of the season. Brenden Sirizzotti had the other assist on McConnell-Baker’s ninth powerplay goal of the season. In his hundredth career OHL game, Saginaw’s Hunter Haight wraps an unassisted backhand goal from behind Greyhound netminder Samuel Ivanov’s net to sink a wraparound goal past Ivanov’s left pad to even the game 1 – 1 for the Spirit at 11:51 of the first. 96 seconds into the middle stanza from between the faceoff circles, Greyhound Julian Fantino sinks his first goal as a Greyhound with snapshot past Lennox to give the Soo a 2 – 1 lead. Bryce McConnell-Baker and Kalvyn Watson drew the helpers on Fantino’s fourth of the season. Eleven seconds before the midway mark of the period after a Greyhound four on two, Fantino sinks his second of the period to bring the hosts lead to 3 – 1 from the right faceoff circle. Marco Mignosa and Christopher Brown contributed on Fantino’s goal.

At 13:48, Christopher Brown fires a shot on the Spirit net to be tipped by Brenden Sirizzotti past Lennox to increase the Soo’s lead to 4 – 1. Ryan Thompson drew the second helper on Sirizzotti’s twelfth of the season. Dean Loukus banks Saginaw’s second goal of the contest off of Greyhound defenseman Kirill Kudryavtsev to find the back of Ivanov’s net with 5.8 seconds remaining in the period, Michael Mesa and James Guo notched the assists on Loukus’ fifteenth of the season. With a Soo turnover, Zayne Parekh picks a loose puck to rifle snapshot under Ivanov’s catcher to Saginaw within one only 58 seconds into the final period of the contest. From the top of the left faceoff circle, Bryce McConnell-Baker finds the back of Lennox’s net at 9:07 to give the Soo a 5 – 3 lead. Kirill Kudryavtsev had the lone contributor on McConnell-Baker’s powerplay goal. Twenty-nine seconds later from the left faceoff circle, Kalvyn Watson registers his third point of the game with second goal of the game for the Greyhounds at the 9:36 mark with Sirizotti and Kudryavtsev setting up Watson’s twenty of the season. Saginaw goaltender Tristan Lennox stopped 22 of 28 shots in the Spirit’s 6 – 3 loss while Soo netminder Samuel Ivanov earned his eighth win of the season with turning away 13 of 16 shots in Greyhounds home win.

The Greyhounds next opponent will be another west division in the Flint Firebirds on Friday, January 20th in a 7:07 p.m puck drop.