Greyhounds outrun Troops
Marco Mignosa scored one goal and added an assist as the Soo Greyhounds defeated the North Bay Battalion 4-1 in a chippy Ontario Hockey League game Wednesday night.
Brodie McConnell-Barker, Brady Martin and Charlie Hilton each had one goal, and goaltender Landon Miller made 31 saves. Soo has a won-lost-extended record of 15-17-0 for 30 points, tied for third place in the West Division with the Flint Firebirds, who posted a 5-2 home-ice win over the Saginaw Spirit.
Andrew LeBlanc had the Battalion goal, bringing down a flood of plush toys on Teddy Bear Toss Night presented by The Brick North Bay. LeBlanc returned to the lineup after losing eight games to injury.
Before a Memorial Gardens crowd of 3,187, goaltender Mike McIvor produced 22 saves for the Battalion, which played a fifth home game in its last six and is 13-14-3 for 29 points, fifth in the Central Division.
“As advertised, I knew we were going to get their best game,” said Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen.
“We certainly got that, and we weren’t executing tonight. The puck was really hard for us. I don’t know if there were many sequences where we made two or three crisp passes in a row, and that was probably our downfall here tonight.”
The Battalion, which trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes, tied it at 2:05 of the second period when LeBlanc one-timed a Nick Wellenreiter pass and brought on the deluge, delaying the game for almost 10 minutes. It was LeBlanc’s fifth goal of the season.
McConnell-Barker restored the Soo lead 1:24 later, drilling home a Mignosa pass from behind the net from the right faceoff dot. Chase Reid had the other assist on defenceman McConnell-Barker’s second goal.
The scoreless third period saw 10 penalties, including fighting majors at 16:22 to Martin and Nolan Laird, who reunited after Martin dumped Laird headfirst into the boards at Sault Ste. Marie on Nov. 30. Martin received an interference major and game misconduct for that infraction, leading to the Troops’ last-minute winning goal in a 3-2 decision.
Mignosa was credited with his 12th goal at 4:36 of the first period when a shot from the high slot deflected off a skate on the way through traffic. Carson Andrew had the sole assist.
Smith and several other Greyhounds jabbed at the puck in the crease in the second minute, but scrambling Battalion defenders finally cleared it away. McIvor then denied Reid on a solo break-in in the fifth minute.
The Troops failed to capitalize on two power plays in the period, including when Owen Van Steensel, with a gaping net, fired high and wide from the left side.
BATTALION BULLETS: A total of 1,189 toys were collected, to be distributed through the Santa Fund and the Children’s Miracle Network. Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus were in attendance, and the national anthem was sung by pupils from the Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School … The game Nov. 30 became the first of four meetings after a date the previous night was postponed in a snowstorm. With no makeup yet announced, the next meeting looks to be Feb. 6 at North Bay … Bronson Ride played his 200th OHL game, his 57th with the Troops. He played 70 with the Windsor Spitfires and 73 with the Niagara IceDogs before a trade last Jan. 7 … The Battalion went 0-for-5 on the power play. Soo was 1-for-3 … Opening lines had Ethan Procyszyn centring left winger Van Steensel and right winger Jacob Therrien, LeBlanc centring left winger Shamar Moses and right winger Wellenreiter and Ryder Carey pivoting left winger Reyth Smith and right winger Lirim Amidovski. Briir Long centred left winger Laird and right winger Stepan Chukharev … The Battalion was without Declan Gallivan, Dylan Richter, Ihnat Pazii, Anthony Romani, Zach Wilson and Natan Teshome … Soo’s Andrew Gibson was with the Canadian team in a training camp at Petawawa, Ont., before the World Junior Championship at Ottawa and suburban Kanata starting Dec. 26 … Also missing were Owen Allard and Brayden Velliaris … James Kraft and Andrew Willmetts were the referees.
