McCann, Tolchinsky pace Greyhounds to victory (10 photos)

The Soo Greyhounds and Sudbury Wolves couldn’t get their Ontario Hockey League opener going in Sudbury on Friday night so they gave it another try, this time on Saturday night in Sault Ste. Marie.

For the Wolves, many looked as though they were still stuck in Friday night’s fog at Sudbury Arena as they dropped a 10-3 decision to the Greyhounds in the season opener for both clubs.

The Greyhounds broke a 3-3 tie in the second period when they reeled off seven unanswered goals en route to the win.

“I certainly wasn’t expecting 10 goals tonight so am I shocked? Sure,” said Greyhounds coach Sheldon Keefe. “You don’t go into any game expecting that kind of outburst.”

“I really try to keep things in perspective,” said Keefe. “I know we created a lot of high-end, grade-A scoring chances but it really seemed like we scored on a high percentage of our chances. At the other end, I thought we gave up a lot, but Matt Murray was really solid for us. In the second period when it was 3-3, then it was 4-3, he was really solid.”

For the Greyhounds, sophomore forward Jared McCann led the way with four goals in the win while Sergey Tolchinsky added a goal and three assists.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better game out of myself or the whole team,” said McCann. “It wasn’t just me and Sergey, but we all led offensively and defensively as well. We know what we need to do defensively. Obviously we made some mistakes. From now on, we’re going to work on our defence because we know we have that offensive spark in us.”

Just how good of a night did McCann have in the win?

“On the fourth goal, I shut my eyes,” McCann said. “I saw (Sudbury goaltender Troy Timpano) go down and I closed my eyes and shot. My eyes opened when everybody started cheering.”

Tyler Gaudet added a goal and two assists in the win for the Greyhounds. Brandon Hughes chipped in with a goal and an assist while Andrew Fritsch, Trent Mallette and Patrick Watling added two assists each.  Dylan Staples, Jorgen Karterud and Michael Bunting also scored for the Greyhound.

Goaltender Matt Murray stopped 29 shots.

Dominik Kubalik, Nathan Pancel and Nicholas Baptiste scored for the Wolves in the loss. Startig goaltender Franky Palazzese stopped 20 of 28 shots before being pulled after the second period. Troy Timpano stopped two of four Greyhound shots in the third period.

“Last night we played in a foggy arena, tonight our team was foggy,” said Wolves coach Paul Fixter. “It’s pretty obvious we didn’t show up when you lose that badly. It also tells us we’ve got a lot of work to do and we should probably stop reading our press clippings.”

The Greyhounds are back in action on Sept. 27 when they host the North Bay Battalion in a 7:07 p.m. start at the Essar Centre.

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