SENY-sational start to roadtrip in Saginaw
Published on February 14, 2015 under Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Soo Greyhounds News Release
SAGINAW, MI - If the regular season was to end today, they would be first round playoff opponents.
With that said, heading into Friday's game against the Saginaw Spirit, Hounds Head Coach Sheldon Keefe was looking for a full sixty-minute effort.
"There's a segment of the second period we'd like to clean up, and want it back and do it differently but in general it was a really good game" began Keefe.
"Saginaw played us very hard in the first period and made it hard on us but I think we stuck with it and they got tired, broke down a little bit and we took over."
The Hounds came out buzzing and had an early 4-on-2 rush that ended with JARED MCCANN dropping the puck back to NICK RITCHIE, who was turned aside by Evan Cormier.
Pressing on, the Hounds would open the scoring at the 3:38 mark when ZACH SENYSHYN skated up the right wing before firing a shot under the cross bar, glove side for the 1-0 lead. For Senyshyn it was his 17th of the season, assisted by BLAKE SPEERS.
Then on their second power play in the early part of the game, BRYAN MOORE got the pass and the slot and wasted little time recording his 17th goal of the year increasing the lead to 2-0.
BRANDON HALVERSON kept the two goal cushion stopping Connor Brown with a glove stop after he was sprung in behind the Hounds, but closely chased by COLTON WHITE.
The Hounds chance to increase the lead on another power play was foiled early by a number of blocked shots, then KEIGAN GOETZ's one-on-one chance.
Saginaw would pull within a goal before the game was ten minutes old when Tye Felhaber worked through two Hounds and deked to Halverson's left, cutting the lead to 2-1 through twenty minutes.
The Hounds would take a stranglehold on the game in the second period, starting with their first shot of the period. ZACH SENYSHYN notched his 2nd of the night finishing off the play in front after MICHAEL BUNTING started the play by rushing the zone from neutral territory and the Hounds led 3-1.
Shortly after Halverson blockered away Dylan Sadowy, the lead would be increased further.
NICK RITCHIE stopped the puck from leaving the zone and went left to right of the goal, finding DARNELL NURSE in close for his 9th goal of the year and a 4-1 lead.
Offensively the Hounds were striking while keeping Saginaw shotless for nearly the first six minutes of the period.
Then 1:08 after scoring their 4th goal, at the 11:46 mark, BRYAN MOORE put on a great effort starting in neutral ice before taking a shot that beat Cormier for the 5-1 lead through forty-minutes. Assist to JUSTIN BAILEY.
The solid defensive play by the Hounds carried through the third period as they allowed just a single shot in the first half of the period, and only four all period long.
Before and after that mark, the Hounds scored the final two goals of the game.
First, at 9:07, ZACH SENYSHYN capped off his 1st-career OHL hat trick on a play with BLAKE SPEERS and MICHAEL BUNTING and then NICK RITCHIE would round out the scoring at 10:18.
"It was nice to see him get rewarded here today. He has been playing really well and capitalizing on his chances. I thought that line was tremendous tonight. All three guys (Bunting, Speers, Senyshyn) were real good and Zach was on the end of it to put them in the net. The whole line had a really good effort" said Keefe when asked about the game's 1st star.
The Hounds outshot Saginaw 29-10 over the final two periods along with outscoring them 5-0 enroute to the victory.
"It was a lot better, but I think the big thing for us is we defended fast, got the puck back quickly and got out of our end. We really didn't spend, especially in the third, I don't know if there was a point in the third period and time longer than 10 seconds in our zone" explained Keefe in regards to his team's defensive game.
"When you defend fast you and when you do that you don't have to defend a lot and play on offence a lot. And when we get to play on offence a lot, as long as we are playing responsible with the puck we are a very tough team to play against. And that in turn becomes good defence."
The win, the Hounds 40th of the season, improved their record to 40-11-0-2, good for 82 points.
"What I liked most was just how we finished the game. The third period was excellent, it was as good a third period as we played in a long time, if not all season. And that's what we have been looking for." concluded Keefe.
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