Spirit will try to avoid a four game sweep tonight at the Dow Event Center

down three games to zero the Spirit are in a must win game tonight

    icon Apr 03, 2015
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The Saginaw Spirit will try to avoid an early exit in its 2015 Ontario Hockey Leagues western conference playoff series against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds tonight at the Dow Event Center. The Spirit are down 3-games to-0 in the best-of-seven series.

The Greyhounds will be attempting to replicate the outcome of the last time the two teams met in the playoffs. The Greyhounds swept the Spirit 4-games to-0 in the first round of the 2008 OHL playoffs. This Spirit team will need all of its young players at the top of their game to avoid the sweep. The Greyhounds extended their series lead to 3-0 after a very strong performance Tuesday night at the Dow Event Center.

Tuesday night, the Spirit came out flying in front of 3,023 fans for the first home game of the 2015 post-season, but the Greyhounds finished strong to the end the second half of the first period with two goals, then added two more goals for a 4-0 game three victory. Talking on www.sootoday.com Greyhound head coach Sheldon Keefe said his team had to sustain an early surge by the Spirit, but he was happy how his team finished the first period.

“In terms of the first period, it was more about the finish,” Keefe said on the Ontario website. “In the second half of the period we were able to sustain things a little bit more offensively. The finish of that period was really good. We knew (Saginaw) was going to come out hard.”

The young Spirit team has put up a valiant effort considering they are sending out the youngest lineup in OHL history to play -arguably- the strongest team in the 60 team Canadian Hockey League this season. In game 2 in Sault Ste. Marie played a defensively brilliant game, holding the Spirit to just 18 shots throughout the entire game on their way to an 8-2 win. Keefe continued talking about his teams defensive effort in games 2-and-3 on www.sootoday.com Tuesday evening.

“We were extremely good, maybe as good as we've been all season, defensively,” continued Keefe. “The game (Tues.) wasn't as efficient as our last time out (game 2), but it's hard to replicate an effort like that.”

The Spirit definitely have their work cut out tonight, but they have a great opportunity to prove to the fans and themselves that -although a very young team- they deserve to compete with the very best that the CHL has to offer. A win tonight could really set the stage for the next few seasons for this group of talented young Saginaw Spirit players.  

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