Greyhounds win shootout over 67's

The Soo Greyhounds found themselves in a familiar position on Friday night but the end result was much better.

After dropping a shootout on Wednesday night against the Sudbury Wolves, the Greyhounds picked up a 2-1 shootout win on Friday night against the Ottawa 67’s in Ontario Hockey League action.

Despite some chances, the team teams skated scoreless through the opening period and much of the second period before David Miller opened the scoring for the Greyhounds at 18:27 of the second period. The lead lasted all of 2:39 as the 67’s converted on their first scoring chance of the third period. Rookie forward Travis Konecny broke to the net and redirected a feed by Ryan Van Stralen on a two-on-one just 1:09 into the third period.

The game remained tied through the third period and overtime, but not without scoring chances, which included a stop by Greyhounds goaltender Matt Murray on a breakaway by Ottawa Joseph Blandisi in overtime.

Murray stopped a pair of Ottawa shooters in the shootout while Jared McCann and Sergey Tolchinsky scored for the Greyhounds to give them the extra point.

“It’s been the same story that we’ve had here the last number of games,” said Greyhounds coach Sheldon Keefe. “We did some good things five-on-five but we weren’t perfect. We did a lot of good things but we’re just not getting the production offensively. We’re hitting posts and missing open nets and just waiting for things to break open a little bit here. Our margin for error is pretty small right now.”

Keefe added that despite the Greyhounds struggles offensively, the game plan hasn’t changed since opening day.

“I don’t think we’re playing a lot differently than we were at the beginning of the season when we were one of the top teams in the league in terms of our record,” said Keefe. “The puck’s just not going in for us. If a couple of those posts go post and in and a couple of the open nets go in the net, we win 5-1 and every leaves feeling happy and feels great about the Hounds and how great they’re playing. Just because they’re not going in for us, it doesn’t change how we play.”

Ottawa coach Chris Byrne was pleased with the play of the 67’s in the loss.

“It was a good effort,” said Ottawa coach Chris Byrne. “We obviously wanted to make it tight (defensively) out there. It was a tight game and we came into a tough rink and did our job.”

The veteran bench boss also spoke highly Konecny.

“As a young guy in the league, he’s had a really good start,” Byrne said of the rookie forward. “He competes hard. He blocked some shots tonight and finished his checks. He had a really good night.”

Ottawa goaltender Philippe Trudeau stopped 37 shots while Murray stopped 25 for the Greyhounds in the win.

“When you’re not s coring goals, your goaltending has to be great and can’t make any mistakes,” said Keefe. He’s been that for us and was like that tonight. To only give up one goal, that’s why I’m glad to see us win in the shootout and get us the second point. Matt deserved the win tonight.”

Next up for the Greyhounds is the final game of their five-game homestand on Saturday night against the Niagara IceDogs.

To read SooToday.com's live blog from Friday's game, click here.

Photo courtesy SooToday.com's Kenneth Armstrong