Wolves bounce back to beat Greyhounds (4 photos)

The Ontario Hockey League exhibition schedule continued for the Soo Greyhounds on Saturday night at the Essar Centre as they hosted the Sudbury Wolves.

After opening up a 2-0 lead through one period, the Greyhounds eventually dropped a 7-4 decision to the Wolves to fall to 1-1 in exhibition action.

“The effort wasn’t great, the execution was terrible but we needed this,” said Greyhounds coach Sheldon Keefe. “Things came so easy for us (Friday in Sudbury) that we were entering dangerous territory so tonight’s a nice wakeup call.”

Keefe added that Saturday’s loss could be an awakening call for some players in the lineup after Friday night’s 6-1 win over Sudbury.

“We had a bunch of kids who went in against a much older team (Friday) and all of a sudden they think this is an easy league to play in and it’s not,” Keefe also said.

“(Friday) we couldn’t do anything wrong. Everything was smooth. (Passes) were tape-to-tape and pretty to watch,” Keefe said. “Today was just ugly.”

Boris Katchouk, Gabe Guertler, Jean Dupuy and Zach Senyshyn scored for the Greyhounds in the loss. Goaltender Joseph Raaymakers stopped 25 shots for the Greyhounds in his second consecutive start of the exhibition season.

“It was like night and day (after Friday’s loss),” said Wolves coach Paul Fixter. “I’ll give the guys credit. We had a video session (Saturday) morning and they picked up some of the concepts that we believe in. (Friday night) wasn’t a systems loss. It was a work ethic and compete level loss. I don’t care what your systems are, if you don’t work, it doesn’t matter.”

Fixter wasn’t behind the bench for the Wolves Saturday. He chose to watch the game from the stands at the Essar Centre, something he has done during the Wolves early exhibition games.

“We’re still in the evaluation process,” said Fixter. “When you’re on the bench, you’re doing a lot of coaching and teaching. Upstairs I’m evaluating and watching.”

Kyle Capobianco, Brody Milne, Matt Schmalz, Nathan Pancel and Ray Huether broke Saturday’s game open with third period goals for the Wolves. Hutether finished the night with a pair of goals while Jacob Harris also scored for Sudbury.

Wolves goaltender Samuel Tanguay stopped 19 shots.

The Greyhounds are back in action next weekend as they play a home-and-home exhibition series with the Saginaw Spirit beginning Friday night in Saginaw.

In other action around the OHL on Saturday Sarnia beat London 7-1, Oshawa defeated Niagara 5-2, Guelph held off Barrie 3-1, Owen Sound beat North Bay 3-1, Plymouth needed a shootout to beat Saginaw 2-1 and in interleague play Ottawa beat the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Gatineau Olympiques 4-3.

(PHOTO: Soo Greyhounds forward Jean Dupuy grabs the face mask of Sudbury Wolves player Jonathon Masters during a game September 6, 2014 at the Essar Centre in Sault Ste. Marie. SooToday.com/Kenneth Armstrong)