A Marco Mignosa hat trick helped the Soo Greyhounds skate away with a 7-4 victory over the North Bay Battalion Thursday at Memorial Gardens.
“Tough night, obviously a tough result,” remarked Battalion head coach Ryan Oulahen. “Give Soo some credit, they came in here and played a good game. There were things that we knew they were going to do, we just had a hard time transitioning to it.
“I thought we were a step behind, little bit slow, and when you’re playing them you have to play on your toes and play fast or else you’re chasing the puck a lot and I found we were doing that for most of the game. We have to find a way to turn the page real quick.”
With Bronson Ride in the box serving an interference penalty early, the Greyhounds struck on the ensuing powerplay. Holding the puck behind the Battalion net, Noel Nordh found Brady T. Smith (6) almost right next to right side post, and Smith tapped the pass behind Mike McIvor on a goal that surely the North Bay netminder would like back. The goal came 2:36 into the game.
North Bay fans had to wait a little while longer to celebrate a goal, however. With 57.1 seconds remaining in the period, Jacob LeBlanc (7) responded with a powerplay goal as the offensive defenceman fired a wrist shot from the point, fooling Greyhounds goalie Landon Miller.
After the two powerplay goals were scored, the score was knotted at 1-1 after the first period.
Just over a minute into the second, the Soo responded with a wrist shot from the point of their own, this one was tipped on the way, however. It was Hunter Solomon who unleashed the shot, but Travis Hayes (13) got the tip in the slot, beating McIvor on the redirect.
Moments later the Battalion scored…just on the wrong net. The Greyhounds had a three-on-one coming into North Bay territory, making some slick passes. However, the last cross ice pass came from Marco Mignosa and hit Troops defenceman, Brayden Turley’s stick, rolling between the legs of McIvor. Mignosa was credited with the goal, his 20th of the season.
Just under two minutes later, the momentum continued for Sault Ste. Marie. Coming in all alone on a breakaway, Jordan Charron tried to beat McIvor, but the netminder made a remarkable save to keep the deficit at two.
Perhaps a turning point was the McIvor save, as the Troops got back on the board, but this one came shorthanded, and from an unlikely source. Killing off a double minor for high sticking against Adrian Manzo, Bronson Ride (1) made up for his previous sin of the interference penalty in the first, by blocking a shot at the point and broke in alone on a breakaway. Channeling his inner Ethan Procyszyn, Ride beat Miller with a nice deke, putting it past the goalie.
The goal wasn’t just Ride’s first of the season, but his first since a January 2024 trade to North Bay.
North Bay thought they had tied the game up about four minutes later as Zach Wigle beat Miller on a slick backhand from the slot. However, upon a review, it was determined Parker Vaughan was offside in the play leading up to the goal.
The review loomed large as moments later Ride took another penalty, this time for hooking. Naturally the Soo capitalized as Mignosa (21) broke in alone past two Battalion defenders, and beat McIvor.
Continuing on, it was the Greyhound’s turn for a shorthanded goal. After a Jacob Therrien giveaway on the powerplay to Brady Martin led to a two-on-one, where Martin found Mignosa (22) and he beat an over-sliding McIvor to complete the hat trick.
The score after the second was 5-2 Sault Ste. Marie.
In the third the Greyhounds kept rolling. This time, with a five-on-three man advantage, Martin (20) beat McIvor with a perfectly placed shot to put the Soo up four.
Some might start calling Bronson Ride (2) Alex Ovechkin after this one as the big defender got his second of the game on a breakaway. This time, #25 jolted out of the penalty box, came in on Miller, and beat the netminder between the legs.
“I saw my chances on a shorthanded one and coming out of the box, and capitalized when I got the chances,” stated Ride. “It’s nice but at the end of the day you want to get the points and beat the other team, but it is nice to get two.”
“Two really good breakaways, got the crowd going and shows the skating ability he has and the skill in those plays,” added Oulahen. “I think his skillset, especially as a minor hockey player coming up, he could be a real offensive guy. Coming into our league he has worked to become a shutdown specialist, especially with his size and reach.
“When you have that ability, you kind of always have that ability when you need it, and I do think he is somebody who can play on both sides of the puck and create offence. We would like to see it.”
The Battalion looked to keep momentum going, but another review went against them. This time, it looked like Nick Wellenreiter had scored to make it 6-4, but after a review it was deemed that he had head butted the puck in the net.
Undeterred, the Troops struck for real moments later. This time, Procyszyn (27) was fed a pass from Wellenreiter, and the captain beat Miller on the backhand after a deke to get around a Soo defender.
With 20 seconds remaining, the Hounds iced it as Martin (21) put the puck into an empty net. That made the final 7-4.
Looking back on the game where some momentum was killed was in the goal reviews. Two went against North Bay, and the Procyszyn one was talked about. Oulahen thinks it could be better.
“I don’t know how we can speed it up, but we have to do something to try and speed it up. It’s a buzzkill certainly on our end when we’re on the wrong side of it. That could have been a completely different game I think, especially the offside call.
“If that’s a goal, we have all the momentum right there, and it’s probably a different hockey game vs it not being a goal and them scoring shortly after, it’s tough to rebound from those. That’s something I think will get better as we move on with the delay and time it takes.”
The Battalion have little time to reset as they are back in action Friday on the road against the Guelph Storm. Puck drop is at 7p.m.
“Flush this, it doesn’t matter,” Oulahen said. “The result is the result, we know where we are in the standings. We got to find ways to chip away and find points here.
“We’re still in control, there’s nothing to be worried about and we have to find a way to get on the road, we have six in a row on the road, to scrape and claw and gel as a team.”