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Senyshyn's power play goal leads Greyhounds to win

The Soo Greyhounds will head into their first road trip of the Ontario Hockey League season with a 3-0 record.

The Soo Greyhounds will head into their first road trip of the Ontario Hockey League season with a 3-0 record.

Thanks to a pair of power play goals in the latter stages of the second period, the Greyhounds skated to a 6-4 win over the Saginaw Spirit at the Essar Centre on Wednesday night.

Zach Senyshyn and Blake Speers scored on the power play at 17:30 and 18:09 of the second period respectively, turning a 3-1 Greyhounds lead into a 5-1 lead heading into the final frame where they held on for the victory.

“We settled down nicely on the power play,” said Senyshyn, who also added an assist in the win. “The guys were really working (the puck well). The puck went off the back boards and I was able to find the empty net, which was a nice way to pot one.”

Senyshyn’s first goal of the season came after a Kyle Jenkins point shot went wide of the Saginaw goal and deflected back in the slot to the rookie forward, who deposited the loose puck past Spirit goaltender Nikita Serebryakov.

“Every time (Senyshyn) had the puck, it seemed like the rest of the game just went into slow motion and he just took off,” said Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe. “He had a ton of chances and it’s good to see him finally get rewarded.”

The Greyhounds scored three power play goals in the win, including the pair late in the second period.

“That took a lot of the wind out of our sails,” Saginaw Coach Greg Gilbert said of the two power play goals.

“As a group, we’ve got to play from minute one with more urgency, more purpose and more execution,” Gilbert added. “We are a young team but the young guys better understand that they’ve got to learn how to play the game and play within our style. We shot ourselves in the foot a lot tonight with some bad penalties.”

Michael Bunting scored a pair of goals in the win for the Greyhounds while Gustav Bouramman had a goal and an assist. Sergey Tolchinsky also scored. David Miller set up three goals for the Greyhounds.

Goaltender Brandon Halverson stopped 29 shots for the Greyhounds.

The sophomore goaltender’s puck handling came into play in the win as well after coming out to play the puck in the corner of the Greyhounds zone, only to trip, leading to a shorthanded goal by Saginaw’s Dylan Sadowy.

“Those kind of things are going to happen with him, I have no issue with it,” Keefe said of Halverson following the game.

Prior to the turnover, Halverson made another play in which he eventually circled the Greyhounds goal and led to the team breaking out of their own zone. Keefe spoke extremely highly of the play following the game

“The pirouette around the net was outstanding,” Keefe said of the initial play. “It’s one of the best plays I’ve ever seen from a goaltender and I’m not joking. It’s one of the best plays I’ve ever seen from a goaltender handling the puck.”

Connor Brown, Jimmy Lodge and Kris Bennett also scored for the Spirit in the loss while defenceman Brandon Prophet set up two goals. Serebryakov stopped 28 shots for Saginaw.

The Greyhounds now prepare for their first road game of the season on Friday night in Sudbury when they face the Wolves. The team returns home on Oct. 8 when they host the Wolves.

(PHOTO: Soo Greyhounds defencemen Gustav Bouramman (right) is congratulated immediately after scoring his first OHL goal October 1, 2014 in a game against the visiting Saginaw Spirit at the Essar Centre in Sault Ste. Marie. Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday)

To check out SooToday's live blog of Wednesday's game, click here

To watch highlights from Wednesday's game, click here


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Brad Coccimiglio

About the Author: Brad Coccimiglio

A graduate of Loyalist College’s Sports Journalism program, Brad Coccimiglio’s work has appeared in The Hockey News as well as online at FoxSports.com in addition to regular freelance work with SooToday before joining the team full time.
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