Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. – The Flint Firebirds hit the road for the first time in the 2022-23 season to take on their West Division rivals in the Soo Greyhounds. It was the two team’s first matchup since Game 5 of the Western Conference Semi-finals that saw the Firebirds skate away to a 7-1 win. Charlie Schenkel got the start in net for the Greyhounds and picked up the Third Star and Will Cranley (St. Louis Blues) for the Firebirds, who was named Second Star in his first win as a Firebird. Riley Piercey (1 G, 1 A) received First Star honors.
The game started with some sloppy play from both teams, but the Firebirds’ penalty kill successfully killed off back-to-back man disadvantages and the momentum swung in the direction of Flint. A great steal and shot from James Petrovski from the point deflected off of Riley Piercey and Gavin Hayes (Chicago Blackhawks) put home the rebound for his first of the year.
The period ended 1-0 Flint in front with shots reading 16-13 Greyhounds and face-offs at 15-4 Hounds.
The second period started with a bang from the Birds. After another penalty kill opportunity a great steal by Ethan Hay led to a 3-on-1 with him, Dmitry Kuzmin (Winnipeg Jets) and Brennan Othmann (New York Rangers), and after a great tic-tac-toe feed it was Othmann burying his 3rd of the year 3:49 into the second.
The Greyhound finally broke through on their fifth power play opportunity of the game. Their captain Bryce McConnell-Barker (New York Rangers) sent one five-hole through a screen on Will Cranley for his first of the year. Kirill Kydryavtsev (Vancouver Canucks) and Marco Mignosa added the assists.
Less than two minutes later, the Hounds struck again. A turnover in the Firebirds zone led to a shot from Kalvyn Watson high to the glove that tied things up at two with 4:29 left in the 2nd. Tyler Savard and Matthew Virgilio added the assists on the tying goal.
Flint had the answer 1:33 later. On a beautiful display of stick-handling, Amadeus Lombardi (Detroit Red Wings) weaved his way around three Greyhounds in the offensive end before dishing a backhand pass to the far post where Riley Piercey pulled it to the backhand and roofed home his first of the year.
The period ended with 45 seconds of carry-over powerplay time for Flint as they led 3-2. Shots were 17-14 in favor of the Birds in the middle stanza.
The third period started as bad as it could for the Firebirds. They were unable to convert on the powerplay and the unit got caught on the ice for almost two minutes before Matthew Virgilio let a shot go from the point that went five-hole on Cranley tying things up at three.
After two more penalties were called against the Firebirds, they buried their second short-handed goal of the year. Coulson Pitre took the puck right from Virgilio at the point and was off to the races. Schenkel came up to the top of the crease as Pitre’s wrist shot was denied by the left pad. He stuck with the play, picked up the rebound and put it into the open cage unassisted at the 9:50 mark of the 3rd.
The Firebirds killed off two more penalties before the Greyhounds got called for too many men as Schenkel was heading to the bench for the extra attacker. On the powerplay with the net empty, Othmann stole the puck in the defensive end, and sent a no-look pass up ice to a wide-open Zacharie Giroux who buried his first of the year into the empty net to seal the 5-3 win.
Shots ended up 40-38 in favor of the Hounds, face-offs leaned their way 38-22. Flint went 1-for-4 with the man-advantage and the Soo finished up 1-for-8.
Photography: Bob Davies / Soo Greyhounds
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