Spirit get back to winning ways with a decisive 6-3 road victory over Sudbury

After a heart breaking 5-4 OT loss to the Barrie Colts at the Barrie Molson Centre last night, Brady Glimour, Marcus Crawford and Filip Hronek each had a 3-point night respectively, while Hayden Hodgson added 2 goals to help lead the Spirit (16-20-6-2) to a decisive 6-3 victory over the Sudbury Wolves (19-21-5-0) at the Sudbury Community Arena in Sudbury, ON tonight. 

 

Sudbury opened up the scoring when forward David Levin (15) scored his fifteenth goal of the season to give his team a 1-0 lead at 6:29 of the first period. 

 

Hodgson (25) would answer just a couple minutes later with his twenty-fifth goal of the season from Keaton Middleton and C.J. Garcia to tie the game at 1-goal apiece at the 8:55 mark of the first period. 

 

After Sudbury defenseman Zach Wilkie was called for a 2-minute roughing penalty at 12:43 of the opening period, Hronek (6) took advantage of the extra attacker, scoring the power play goal for his sixth of the season, with assists coming from Crawford and Gilmour at 14:22 of the first period for a 2-1 Spirit lead heading into the first intermission. 

 

Sudbury tied the game back up early in the second period when forward Alan Lyszczarczyk (7) beat Spirit goal tender Evan Cormier for his seventh of the season just 1:26 into the second period. 

 

The Spirit would proceed to take control in the second period, scoring the next four goals, starting with second year forward Cole Coskey (who was listed at No. 96 on the NHLcentralscouting.com recent mid-term list of the top 217 North American skaters eligible for the 2017 NHL draft) finding the back of the net for his sixth goal of the season to give the Spirit a 3-2 lead with the lone assist coming from Gilmour at 4:03 of the second period. 

 

The Spirit took advantage of another Sudbury penalty when Hodgson (26) scored his second goal of the night, a power play goal, for a 4-2 lead with assists from Hronek and Crawford at 5:40 of the third period.

 

Following a 2-minute tripping minor to Spirit defenseman Hayden Davis at 15:57 of the third period, rookie Damien Giroux (7) scored a shorthanded goal for his seventh of the season, and a 5-2 lead at 17:35 of the third period. 

 

Gilmour (16) would round out the Spirit scoring with his sixteenth of the season from Crawford and Kyle Bollers for a 6-2 Spirit lead at the 18:27 mark of the final period. Sudbury forward Owen Lane (3) followed with his third goal of the season, just 8-seconds later, at 18:35 of the third period. 

 

Sudbury goal tender Jake McGrath stopped 24 of the 30 Spirit shots on goal, while Cormier managed to turn away 20 of the 23 shots he would face in net for Saginaw. 

 

The Spirit will wrap up its eastern conference road trip with a visit to North Bay Memorial Gardens to take on the North Bay Battalion for a 2 pm game on Sunday afternoon.