Greyhounds win home opener (Updated)

There’s still work to be done, but the Soo Greyhounds proved something to themselves on Friday night against the Plymouth Whalers.

After opening up a 3-0 lead, the Greyhounds surrendered five-straight goals to the Whalers and trailed 5-3 with just over 10 minutes remaining in the third period before goals by Ryan Sproul and Jared McCann tied the game, setting the stage for Brandon Alderson to score the game-winner just 22 seconds into the extra frame.

Alderson, who scored a pair of goals in the win, broke down the left wing on the overtime winner and tucked the puck past Whalers goaltender Matt Mahalak to send the announced crowd of just under 4,100 into a frenzy.

“We came out strong for the first period and for probably the first eight minutes of the second period,” said Greyhounds coach Mike Stapleton. “We scored the third goal and then gave up a goal right after and then lost the momentum. We started to beat ourselves by getting caught up ice but found a way in the third period to regain our composure with about eight minutes left and found a way to pull it out.”

The Whalers, who outshot the Greyhounds 42-32 in the game, scored three times in a six minute span in the second period to tie the game and then scored goals 14 seconds apart in the third period to take the lead.

“We took over in the second and third periods where we dominated for stretches,” said Whalers coach Mike Vellucci. “We had ten new guys in our lineup who had some jitters and got off to a slow start but overall it wasn’t a bad game for us. We definitely have to learn to close it down in the last ten minutes.”

Alderson scored a pair of goals in the win for the Greyhounds while Sproul had a goal and two assists for the Greyhounds in the win. Darnell Nurse and David Broll added a pair of assists each while McCann, Dylan Staples and Sergey Tolchinski had the other goals for the Greyhounds.

Goaltender Matt Murray stopped 37 shots in the win.

“He played really well down the stretch and made some huge saves for us,” Stapleton said of the veteran goaltender.

Said Vellucci: “He was phenomenal. He made some huge saves.”

Cody Payne, Stefan Noesen, Garrett Meurs, Connor Carrick and Alex Aleardi scored for Plymouth. Ryan Hartman and Matthew Mistele had two assists each in the loss.

Whalers goaltender Matt Mahalak stopped 26 shots in the loss.

The Greyhounds return to action on Saturday night when they host the Windsor Spitfires at 7:07 p.m.

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OTHER SCORES

In Kingston, defenceman Michael Moffat had a goal and two assists to lead the Kingston Frontenacs to a 3-1 win over the Barrie Colts. Cody Alcock and Sam Bennett had the other goals for Kingston while goaltender Mike Morrison stopped 27 shots in the win. Mark Scheifele had the lone goal for Barrie in the loss.

In Sarnia, Malcolm Subban stopped 27 shots as the Belleville Bulls beat the Sarnia Sting 3-1. Michael Curtis, Austen Brassard and Joseph Cramarossa scored for Belleville while Brendan Gaunce set up a pair of goals in the win. Jack Kuzmyk had the lone goal for Sarnia.

In Brampton, Steven Shipley had the shootout winner as the Niagara IceDogs beat the Brampton Battalion 2-1. IceDogs goaltender Christopher Festarini stopped 33 shots in the win while Anthony DiFruscia had the lone regulation goal. Spencer Abraham had the goal for Brampton.

In Guelph, Andrey Pedan had the overtime winner as the Guelph Storm beat the Saginaw Spirit 4-3. Jason Dickinson had a pair of goals for Guelph while defenceman Matt Finn had three assists for the Storm. Justin Auger also scored in the win while Garret Ross and Vincent Trocheck had a goal and an assist for the Spirit. Eric Locke also scored in the loss.

In London, Seth Griffith scored three goals to lead the London Knights to an 8-2 win over the Erie Otters. Adam Restoule added a pair of goals while Max Domi, Alex Broadhurst and Brett Welychka had a goal and an assist each. Olli Maatta, Chris Tierney and Kyle Pletzer added two assists each for the Knights. Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist for Erie while J.P. Labardo also scored.

In Mississauga, John Gibson stopped all 25 shots he faced as the Kitchener Rangers blanked the Mississauga Steelheads 3-0. Radek Faksa had a pair of goals for Kitchener while Matt Puempel also scored. Steelheads goaltender Spencer Martin stopped 29 shots.

In Sudbury, Dominik Kubalik scored a pair of goals while Michael Kantor and Nathan Pancel had a goal and an assist each as the Sudbury Wolves beat the Oshawa Generals 4-2. Samuel Schutt added a pair of assists for the Wolves. Boone Jenner and Scott Laughton scored for the Generals in the loss.

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