Spirit dominate top OHL team Erie Otters 8-3 tonight

Eight different players scored for the Spirit including two rookies, one of which, Max Grondin scored his first career OHL goal....

    icon Nov 19, 2016
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The Saginaw Spirit (6-11-2-1) put together its best effort of the 2016-17 Ontario Hockey League season beating the first place Erie Otters (15-4-2-0) 8-3 in front of 4,142 fans at the Dow Event Center tonight. 
 
The Spirit jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead with goals from Matthew Kreis (2), Jesse Barwell (4), and Brady Gilmour (6) out-shooting the Otters 10-8 in the first frame.
 
After off-setting slashing penalties to Erie defenseman Jordan Sambrook and Spirit forward Kirill Maksimov at 18:23 of the first followed by a hooking penalty to Spirit forward Kris Bennett at 18:40 of the first period, the Otters scored with a 4 on 3 man advantage just 15 seconds into the second period. 
 
The Spirit, however, would answer 55 seconds later when Kirill Maksimov (3) redirected a shot from Filip Hronek and Markus Niemelainen for his third goal of the season and a 4-1 Saginaw lead at 1:10 of the second period. 
 
The Spirit would add four more second period goals to take an 8-2 lead into the second intermission. Defenseman Robert Proner (2) scored his second of the season at the 9:53 mark, followed by rookie Damien Giroux (4) who scored his fourth goal of the season at from Matthew Kreis and Marcus Crawford at 11:15 of the period.
 
Spirit over ager Hayden Hodgson (6) scored his sixth goal of the  season at 13:32 of the second period for a 7-1 lead. Another Spirit rookie, Maxim Grondin (1) scored his first career OHL goal at 18:23 of the second period to round out the Saginaw scoring. 
 
Spirit goal tender Evan Cormier stopped 33 of the 36 shots he faced in between the pipes tonight. 
 
The Spirit will return to the Dow Event Center to host the Owen Sound Attack for a 7:05 pm game tomorrow night, before heading down I-75 to the Dort Federal Event Center for a meeting with the Flint Firebirds Wed. evening. 

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