Damien Giroux scores late game winner to give Spirit 4-3 victory over the Soo Greyhounds in 2017-18 exhibition opener

Nick Porco, Cole Coskey, and Max Grondin also scored for the Spirit tonight.....

    icon Sep 03, 2017
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The Saginaw Spirit kicked off the 2017-18 OHL exhibition season with a 4-3 win over the Soo Greyhounds in the exhibition home-opener at the Dow Event Center tonight. 
 
Second year Spirit forward Damien Giroux broke a 3-3 tie with a heroic game-winning goal late in the final period to secure a 4-3 Spirit win over the Soo in its first exhibition game of the 2017-18 OHL season at the Dow Event Center tonight.
 
The Greyhounds took an early lead when Morgan Frost (a first round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, 27th overall, in the 2017 NHL draft) beat Spirit goal tender Evan Cormier (a fourth round pick of the New Jersey Devils in the 2016 NHL draft) on the blocker-side for a 1-0 Soo lead at 15:23 of the first period.
 
The Greyhound's added to its lead when forward Keegan Howdeshell scored an unassisted shorthanded goal on a Spirit power play to give the Soo a 2-0 lead at 2:57 of the second period.
 
Saginaw managed to get on the board when 2017 No. 1 Spirit pick (Sault Ste. Marie, ON native) Nick Porco beat Soo goal tender Matthew Villalta, with assist's from Ryan Stepien and Max Grondin to get to within a goal of the Soo (2-1) at 14:10 of the second period. 
 
Soo forward Jack Koapcka (an Anaheim Ducks 2016 NHL draft pick) scored an unassisted goal to give the Soo a 3-1 lead at 2:26 of the third period. 
 
The Spirit would answer just 92 seconds later when Hayden Davis and Brock Hill went D to D as Cole Coskey redirected Hill's shot from the point past Villalta to make it a 3-2 game at 3:58 of the third period.
 
Shortly after the Coskey goal, Grondin scored to tie the game at 3-goals apiece with his first goal of the exhibition season to set the stage for Giroux's late game heroics. 
 
The Spirit will head north on I-75 tomorrow for a road exhibition game against these same Soo Greyhound's at the Essar Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, ON for a 4:07 pm tilt tomorrow afternoon, before returning home next Friday for its third game against the Flint Firebirds at the Dow Event Center on Sep. 15, next week. 

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