As the Spirit moves
Saginaw Spirit is back home, crushed but not totally defeated. The young Spirit will now try to search for answers within itself after falling behind two games to none to the scoring machine that is the Soo Greyhounds.
As the top-seeded Greyhounds opened the first round of the best-of-seven, Ontario Hockey League Western Conference playoff series with a 5-2 win on Friday, the home side tacked on an exclamation mark on Sunday with an 8-0 rout of the no. 8 seed Spirit.
Game 3 is slated for tonight at 7:05 p.m. at the Dow Event Center and Game 4 will also be played in Saginaw, on Wednesday evening, with the same start time.
(Fans in Sault Ste. Marie take note: Both road games will be shown on the big screen at the Marconi Club’s re-furbished La Taverna. Beverages, pizza and specialty sandwiches will be available for purchase.)
Back to Sunday’s 8-0 blanking of the wide-eyed Spirit, the Greyhounds scored four power play goals and simply overwhelmed the OHL’s youngest team, out-shooting it 21-2 in the first period and 44-21 overall.
Morgan Frost and Jack Kopacka paced the Soo score sheet with two goals apiece while Hounds goalie Matthew Villalta was able to stay awake and stifle any yawns to make 21 saves for the shutout.
Does anyone have a problem with Keeghan Howdeshell pulling out the lacrosse move when it’s 6-0 in the third? Rubbing salt in the wound, if you ask me. Try that in a one-goal game or overtime. I can understand why things got chippy later on. Betcha the Spirit players and coaches were talking about that one on the bus ride home. #Mondaymotivation.
I am with you on this one, Ian. Show-boating at its worst and a lack of respect for the opposition. At some point (maybe not this year) what goes around is most likely to come around.
Not even sure why the network would select this particular playoff to showcase when this series is clearly one-sided to everyone who follows this league. The outcome was no surprise and I had to shake my head at all the high-fives and celebrations when the score became 7-0, then 8-0. You’re probably right Randy, karma has a way of levelling things out someday.
The overall backlash at an OHL rookie, Howdeshell, and a draft eligible player, Hayton, getting excited for scoring a highlight reel goal baffles me. As it stands now, Barrett Hayton is the champion of the 1v1 on TSN across all sports in Canada. I can assure you that if given the opportunity, every single junior Hockey player in the country would react the exact same way as a 17 year old! What is worse for a team, passing the puck around with 10 minutes left in the game and trying not to score because you’re beating your opponent so bad, or just playing the game. I think everyone really needs to re-examine what is going on here. Personally, I’m a hockey fan in general, and I love seeing creative skill on display, and I do not care who wins the series as I am naturally a Kitchener fan because of where I grew up.. but reading this nonsense makes me sick. It makes me wonder how many people commenting / writing about this actually played competitive sports. I wish the Rangers had reasons to celebrate like this every year! My guess is Sportsnet wanted to showcase this game because they’re covering a team with multiple drafted players and several potential upcoming draft picks. Let’s use our heads here people!!!
Let’s use our Heads people? You played Competitive Sports? We haven’t?
If you think that’s well excepted in the Hockey world then you must of been a Hotdog like Don Cherry called it. It’s not the first time these goals have been shown on SportsCentre so calm down Aud. You can have your fun eating your popcorn when watching the Allstar game and see these goals. What’s next? Maybe the next guy should pull out the Sun Glasses on a Breakaway with the Wig flowing? Give your head a shake if you think it’s ok It’s more about, when it happened and how it was Celebrated. Cherry might of went a tad hard but that’s what you get when acting foolish. Best Team in North America and they acted out and it was reallly uncalled for at that point of the Game. Cherry gave props as he should as he watched a few games of the Hounds and gave them a huge compliment before ripping them HotDogs. All Joking aside but his point was more about being “Little Cocky Kids” Show Boating Aud at it’s worst. The opponent was weak. So obviously it’s easier than you think to pull it off with those kinda of Goals. I don’t think they pull off those goals the next upcoming series as the Teams will be coming for the Hounds full steam to gun down the HotDogs. Grow up.