Greyhounds win game three over Attack (Updated)

The Soo Greyhounds are back in business.

After dropping the opening two games of their Western Conference quarter-final series against Owen Sound, the Greyhounds rebounded for a 5-3 win on Monday night at the Essar Centre in Ontario Hockey League playoff action.

With the win, the Greyhounds now trail the series 2-1 heading into game four on Wednesday night, also at the Essar Centre.

Much of the talk post-game was surrounding a late Owen Sound goal that was subsequently reviewed and waved off. On the play, Gemel Smith seemingly knocked the puck past Greyhounds goaltender Matt Murray out of the air to tie the game. Referee Joe Celestin signaled the play a goal prior to checking with the video review team as the puck lay waiting in the corner in the Greyhounds zone. After a lengthy review the goal was eventually waved off.

“It didn’t go in the net,” said Greyhounds coach Sheldon Keefe. “It wasn’t even close. The puck landed in the corner. It went up and over the net.”

Said Owen Sound coach Greg Ireland: “We had a referee on the ice say it was a goal. He said ‘I have it in the net.’ Then he goes (to video review) and he says it’s over the net. I asked if it was conclusive. I had one referee say he didn’t see it and couldn’t say but when I asked if it was conclusive, he said yes. I’m a little mystified on that one. I said ‘How can it be conclusive if you didn’t talk to them?’ He was 100% sure to go along with them without talking to them. The other referee said ‘I had it as a goal.’ He was the referee overtop of the back of the net (Joe Celestin). We’re not going to sit here and beat it up. We lost the game, to me by one goal. That’s the way this series has been.”

After falling behind 1-0 in the final minute of the opening period, the Greyhounds stormed out of the gate in the second period, scoring three times in the opening three minutes of the period, all on the power play.

“Obviously that’s an area we’ve focused a lot on here in the last 24 hours in preparing for tonight,” said Keefe of the power play. “A lot of times it’s not so much about what you do differently, it’s just spending some time on it and making sure players are aware of just how important it is. We got some bounces tonight and we earned those bounces.”

Darnell Nurse’s goal early in the third period held up as the eventual game-winner for the Greyhounds while Nick Cousins scored a pair of goals. Defenceman Ryan Sproul had three assists in the win. David Broll added a pair of assists. Michael Schumacher and Brandon Alderson also scored.

Matt Murray stopped 22 shots for the Greyhounds in the win.

Smith had a pair of goals for Owen Sound in the loss. Kyle Hope also scored.

Jordan Binnington stopped 30 shots in the loss.

“We had a five- or six-minute spurt where we stopped playing,” said Ireland in assessment of his team.

Photo courtesy JIm Egan