After a 5 – 2 loss on Saturday, January 8th to open a back to back weekend against the visiting Windsor Spitfires, the first place 18-11-2 Soo Greyhounds hit the ice for an afternoon matinee on Sunday, January 9th to take on the second place (15-9-2-2) Windsor Spitfires in Sault Ste Marie in a west division matchup. The Soo only had a four point lead in the west division standings with the Greyhounds 38 points heading into Sunday’s contest.
55 seconds into the afternoon matinee against the Spitfires, veteran forward Cole MacKay gives the Soo a 1 – 0 lead with picking up a bounce of the back of the boards behind Windsor goaltender Mathias Onuska’s net to slide MacKay’s 12th of the season into the back of the visitors’ net. Rory Kerins and Ryan O’Rourke added the helpers on MacKay’s powerplay goal. Wyatt Johnston finds the back of Greyhound netminder Tucker Tynan’s net 13:31 into the first with stuffing the tying goal behind Tynan’s left post and pad to even the game 1 – 1 for the Spitfires. Will Cuyelle and Andrew Perrott notched the assists on Johnston’s 20th of the season. With Windsor on a powerplay at 8:09, Cuyelle lifts the go-ahead goal through a scrum over a sprawled Tynan for the lead with Johnston and Matthew Maggio drawing the assists on Cuyelle’s 20th of the season.
Marco Mignosa rifles a slapshot from the left blueline to find the back of Onuska’s net over the Spitfires’ goaltender left shoulder to tie the game 2 – 2 for the Soo. Jacob Holmes and Landen Hookey setup Mignosa’s eighth of the season at 10:55. At 14:47, James Jodoin catches a cross crease pass from Spitifre Avval Baisov to sinks the visitors third past Tynan to give the Spitifres a 3 – 2 lead. Oliver Peer drew the second helper on Jodoin’s third of the season. From the left faceoff circle, Rory Kerins fires a snapshot past Onuska to pull the Greyhounds even 3 – 3 at the 15:34 mark of the first. Kalvyn Watson and Kirill Kudryavtsev added the contributors on Kerins’ 19th goal on the season. From the left of Tynan’s net, Michael Renwick slides his third of the season past the Soo netminder to give the Spitfires a 4 – 3 lead at 5:01 of the middle stanza. Cuyelle and Maggio registered the assists on Renwick’s go-ahead goal.
Ethan Miedema gives Windsor a two goal lead with the Spitfires fifth at 5:54 from the left blueline through traffic to have the goal bounce off of Tynan stick blade bring the lead to 5 – 3. Ryan Abraham had the lone helper on Miedema’s seventh of the season. Abraham’s notched his fifth of the season after splitting the Greyhound defense to find the back of Samuel Ivanov’s net to incrase the lead to 6 – 3 for Windsor. Louka Henualt added the assist on Abraham’s goal at 6:09 of the second. Matthew Maggio fires a snapshot from the top of the left faceoff circle to find the back of Ivanov’s net over the Soo rookie netminder’s left shoulder to give the Spitfires a 7 – 3 lead. Henault and Johnston setup Maggio’s 13th of the season 2:48 into the final period. 43 seconds past the halfway mark of the final period, Avval Baisov sank his first of the 2021 – 2022 OHL season with picking up a rebound off of a Renwick shot at 9:17. Henualt regsitered the other helper on Windsor’s eighth of the afternoon matinee.
From between the faceoff circles in front of Ivanov, Miedema sinks his second of the game into the back of the Greyhounds net through Ivanov’s five hole to bring the lead to 9 – 3. Daniel D’Amico contributed Miedema’s second of the game at 10:36. Sinking his second of the game and finding the back of Spitfire goaltender Xavier Medina’s net at 17:01 was Soo rookie Mignosa with Bryce McConnell Baker and Kudryavtsev notching the assists. With 1:23 remaining in the second game of the weekend between the Spitfires and Greyhounds, Cuyelle finds Ivanov on the wrong side of the Soo’s crease to score Windsor’s tenth of the game and give the visitors a 10 – 4 win over the Greyhounds. Johnston and Maggio registered the assists on Cuyelle’s second of the game. All four goalies saw action in the matchup with Spitfires goaltenders Mathias Onuska and Xavier Medina combining to stop 25 of 29 shots while at the other end, Greyhounds Tucker Tynan and Sameul Ivanov combined to turn away 26 of 36 shots in the Greyhounds second straight loss to the visiting Spitfires.
The Greyhounds will now host the Owen Sound Attack on January 15th (7:07 p.m) and January 16th in a 2:07 p.m afternoon matinee in Sault Ste Marie.
Photo Bob Davies
