Greyhounds cap undefeated homestand

Prior to a stretch of road games that will see the team play nine of 11 games on the road, the Soo Greyhounds wrapped up a three-game homestand on Saturday night at the Essar Centrewith a convincing result.

Thanks to a four-goal first period, the Greyhounds picked up an 8-3 Ontario Hockey League win over the Barrie Colts at the Essar Centre to finish the homestand with a 3-0 record. Sergey Tolchinsky got things started just 16 seconds into the game and the Greyhounds found themselves up by a pair 90 seconds into the contest.

“Anytime you can start on time it’s a huge positive,” said Greyhounds Assistant Coach A.J. MacLean, who has been sharing the bench duties with Associate Coach Joe Cirella in the absence of Coach Sheldon Keefe.

MacLean spoke of the timely goals the Greyhounds received in the game.

“We bared down on our scoring chances,” MacLean said. “Overall in the game, I don’t think we played as well as we did in the past two games. We were a bit sloppy. We turned the puck over a lot in the first two periods. The third period was a game of shinny. In the first two periods we turned it over a lot but we were on the fortunate side of some timely goals.”

Tolchinsky and Tim Gettinger had a goal and two assists each for the Greyhounds in the win while David Miller, Michael Bunting, Gabe Guertler and Gustav Bouramman added a goal and an assist each. Bryan Moore and Hayden Verbeek also scored. Verbeek’s goal was the first of his OHL career.

Goaltender Brandon Halverson stopped 36 shots in the win.

Kevin Labanc and Andrew Mangiapane had a goal and an assist each for the Colts in the loss while Adrian Carbonara also scored.

Coach Dale Hawerchuk spoke of the inconsistencies in the Colts game, which has led to the team being 8-8-1-1.

“We know what he have to do and then guys are off doing other things and once we get on another page, it throws the other guys out of whack,” Hawerchuk said.

Rookie goaltender Ruan Badehorst stopped 10 shots for the Colts before being pulled after the Greyhounds fifth goal. Jordan DeKort came in and stopped 12 of 15 shots the rest of the way.

“(The first goal) rattled our young guy right off the bat,” Hawerchuk said. “It was one of those nights where we weren’t giving him a lot of help.”

The Greyhounds now prepare for a stretch of their schedule that sees them play nine of their next 11 games on the road. The team has a 2-4 record through six road games this season. MacLean touched on the importance of having some success at home prior to the stretch.

“It was very important to make hay while the sun shines,” MacLean said. “We’ve got no choice, we’ve got to figure it out now.”

With the win, the Greyhounds improve to 13-5-0-0.

Next up is the start of a road trip that takes the Greyhounds to Plymouth (Nov. 15) and Windsor (Nov. 16).

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OTHER SCORES

In Erie, Connor McDavid had a goal and three assists to lead the Erie Otters to an 8-1 win over the Saginaw Spirit. Dylan Strome chipped in with four assists for Erie in the win. Darren Raddysh had a pair of goals while Alex DeBrincat and Travis Wood added a goal and an assist each for Erie. Kyle Pettit, Quentin Maskimovich and Nock Betz also scored for the Otters. Jimmy Lodge had the lone goal for Saginaw.

In Kingston, Ryan Kujawinski had the shootout winner as the Kingston Frontenacs beat the Ottawa 67’s 2-1. Kujawinski had the lone goal for Kingston in regulation time. Frontenacs goaltender Lucas Peressini stopped 38 shots and all three Ottawa shooters in the shootout. Liam Herbst stopped 33 shots and two of three Kingston shooters in the shootout.

In St. Catharines, Brent Moran made 27 saves as the Niagara IceDogs blanked the Sarnia Sting 2-0. Cody Payne and Blake Siebenaler scored for Niagara in the win. Sarnia goaltender Taylor Dupuis made 44 saves in the loss.

In Sudbury, Nathan Pancel scored at 1:18 of overtime to lift the Sudbury Wolves to a 7-6 win over the Belleville Bulls. Pancel had three goals and an assist in the win while Jacob Harris assisted on red goals for the Wolves.

In Plymouth, Connor Chatham scored at 3:41 of overtime to give the Plymouth Whalers a 4-3 win over the Kitchener Rangers. Chatham had a goal and an assist in the win while Matt Mistele scored a pair of goals and an assist in the win. Kitchener goaltender Dawson Carty made 30 saves in the loss.

In Owen Sound, Michael McNiven stopped all 33 shots he faced as the Owen Sound Attack blanked the Windsor Spitfires 3-0. Zach Nastasiuk and Chris Bigras had a goal and an assist for the Attack while Damir Sharipzyanov also scored in the win. Kyle Platzer set up two goals for Owen Sound. Windsor goaltender Brandon Johnston stopped 27 shots in the loss.

To read SooToday's live blog of Saturday's game, click here