Greyhounds beat Wolves to open homestand (Updated)
Wednesday, October 17, 2012 by: Brad Coccimiglio
A three-game homestand opened for the Soo Greyhounds on Wednesday night as they hosted the Sudbury Wolves at the Essar Centre in the lone game on the Ontario Hockey League schedule.
The game may not have been pretty for the locals at times but the Greyhounds picked up a 3-1 win over the Wolves and improve their record to 7-4-0-0.
The Greyhounds struggled on the power play in the win, scoring once in eight opportunities in the victory.
“It seems like we have good movement but we don’t strike at the right times,” said Greyhounds coach Mike Stapleton. “We have to get pucks to the net. We’ve got bodies there but maybe we’re getting a little too cute right now. We’ve preached that (going to the net) all year long but the puck has to get there.”
Matt Murray came up big in the win for the Greyhounds, stopping 37 shots in the win, including 14 in the second period.
“We weren’t very good in the first two periods but played a lot better in the third period and Matt gave us a chance in the second period,” said Stapleton. “We had some lackadaisical plays and he certainly came up big for us.”
The Greyhounds scored a pair of goals, from the sticks of Darnell Nurse and Nick Cousins, into an empty net, in the latter stages of the win. Stapleton said there’s credit to go around for the Greyhounds ability to pick up their game in the final period, which is something that has become a regular occurrence this season.
“A lot of it is our conditioning and I credit that to Rich Rotenberg,” said Stapleton. “We’ve stressed from the beginning that we have to find a way to finish games out and they’ve done that. They’ve come together as a group.
Michael Schumacher had the other goal for the Greyhounds in the win.
Dominik Kahun had the lone goal for the Wolves in the loss while goaltender Joel Vienneau stopped 35 shots.
“We’ve scored three goals in our last three games,” said Wolves coach Trent Cull. “It’s tough to win those games 1-0. That’s something we’ve got to be better with is getting more pucks to the net to give us an opportunity.”
With the loss, the Wolves record falls to 5-6-0-0.
The Greyhounds return to action in a rare Thursday night game on home ice as they host the Belleville Bulls. The Bulls currently sit in a third-place tie in the OHL’s Eastern Conference with a 6-2-1-0 record.
Puck drop on Thursday night is 7:07 p.m.
Photo courtesy Jim Egan
