Sault Ste. Marie, ON:
The Saginaw Spirit (No. 8 seed in the western conference) opened the first round of the 2018 Ontario Hockey League's western conference playoffs with a 5-2 loss to the Soo Greyhounds (No. 1 seed in the western conference) at the Essar Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, ON tonight.
The Greyhounds struck first early in the game when Jack Kopacka (1) scored his first goal of the playoffs with assists coming from Barrett Hayton and Mac Hollowell for a 1-0 Soo lead at 2:53 of the first period.
The Spirit answered early in the middle frame when Cole Coskey (1) scored his first career playoff goal with assists coming from Jake Goldowski and Max Grondin tying the game at 1-goal apiece at 6:14 of the second period.
Sault Ste. Marie pulled ahead late in the second when Taylor Raddysh (1) scored on a 2 on 1 with an assist from Boris Katchouk to take a 2-1 lead at 15:57 of the second period.
Raddysh (2) added his second of the game in the final minute of the middle frame with assists coming from Morgan Frost and Katchouk to give the Soo a 3-1 lead at 19:07 of the second period.
The Soo opened up a 4-1 lead early in the third when Hollowell (1) scored on a fluke after he dumped the puck in and it hit the boards then bounced off of Spirit goal tender Evan Cormier's pad and into the net for Hollowell's first goal of the 2018 playoffs at 7:14 of the third, shortly before Keeghan Howdeshell (1) made it a 5-1 game at 12:20 of the third period with his first goal of the playoffs.
Saginaw would make it interesting when Danny Katic (1) scored his first career playoff goal from Aidan Prueter to make it a 5-2 game at 16:50 of the third period, however, that was all the offense the Spirit could muster tonight.
Spirit goal tender Evan Cormier stopped 34 of the 39 shots he faced in net for Saginaw, while his counterpart Matthew Villalta turned away 19 of the 21 shots he saw in between the pipes for the Soo tonight.
The Spirit will look to even the series in two days with game-2 back at the Essar Center for a 3 pm face off on Sunday afternoon. Game-2 will also have a tape-delayed broadcast on national TV at 8:30 pm EST on NHL Network Sunday night.
SooToday Highlights- Soo vs Saginaw game 1 of the 2018 OHL playoffs:
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Mar 24, 2018
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