Friday was Opening Night of the 2014-15 OHL Regular season for the Mississauga Steelheads. In town to try and spoil the party were the Oshawa Generals, fresh off a 5-2 win in Barrie on Thursday in their opening game of the season. Thursday Night’s game saw the Generals score five unanswered goals in the third period to take the victory.
The Generals were very sluggish in the first period as Mississauga outshot them 13-5 and took a 1-0 lead on the scoreboard. While they seemed to find their legs in the second period, some great goaltending from the Steelheads’ Spencer Martin would keep them off the board, and the Steelheads would tally twice to take a 3-0. A nice wrist shot from Sean Day in the third period would allow the Steelheads to go up 4-0, and really take control.
The game wasn’t over though, as the Generals stormed back with four goals in the last ten minutes of the game to send it to overtime. The comeback was keyed by 2014 Calgary Flames second round pick Hunter Smith, who spent most of the game causing havoc in front of the Steelheads net, and making life miserable for Martin and the Mississauga defencemen. Smith would pick up assists on three of the four Oshawa goals, and it was clear that he was a real difference maker for the Generals in this one.
While a Brendan Devlin goal would give the Steelheads the victory in overtime, the Generals have to be happy getting a point in a game where nearly all hope seemed lost late in the third period.
I was able to catch up with Smith following the game, and here is what he had to say.
Asked about his role in the comeback, and his three assists Smith stated, “Those three assists, they came around the net and that’s where I need to be most effective. That’s something I can take as a positive note. Obviously, in the first few games of the season you want to get off to a hot start. As a team we battled back in the third period after being down 4-0, so it was a good game for us character wise and to scrape a point out of it.”
Smith talked about his experience this fall in Calgary Flames’ training camp, and what he is working on to be a better player this season, and to take the next step up to the pro game next season. “I’ve learned to be more effective with the puck, by being a lot more patient with the puck on my stick. This is especially important in making plays out of my own zone and starting the transition. I am also working on how to be more effective in front of the net. I learned some tricks from the Flames defencemen, and they taught me some moves to be more effective in front, and what they don’t want to see forwards doing when they are trying to defend. I’m going to apply those to my game this year and hopefully be more efficient and see results.
I also asked Smith about the Generals scoring 9 goals in two nights, all in the third period of their games, and what was leading to the result. Smith stated, “I don’t know why exactly we are scoring all our goals in the third, but I do know that the team never gives up. That said, its probably not a good thing to always play from behind, as you won’t always be able to come back. Good teams will shut you down eventually. Tonight we were able to feed off each others’ energy, as well as the fact we still had some beefs with Mississauga from last year’s hard-fought playoff series and that fuelled the Flame tonight.”
I’d like to thank Smith for taking the time to talk with me, and the Oshawa Generals staff for making him available.
For more on Smith, you can check out my scouting report from last season.
You can follow Hunter Smith – @BigRigSmith and the Generals @Oshawa_Generals. The team’s home opener is Sunday September 28th, against the Sudbury Wolves. The team is also honouring John Tavares as they retire his number.
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