Eight in a row: Greyhounds cap road trip with win

The Soo Greyhounds continue to win.

The Greyhounds won their fifth-straight road game and eighth game overall as they beat the Kingston Frontenacs 3-1 Sunday afternoon at the K-Rock Centre in Kingston in Ontario Hockey League action.

The Greyhounds haven’t lost since dropping a 5-4 decision to the Saginaw Spirit on Nov. 1.

A pair of goals 56 seconds apart in the opening period by Blake Speers and Sergey Tolchinsky heled the Greyhounds open a 2-0 lead and Tolchinsky would add a second goal on the power play in the late stages of the third period to seal the win. Speers’ goal also came on the power play.

“Our guys played hard,” said Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe. “Kingston didn’t have an easy schedule this weekend either. Being away from home for five days and having some tough games and tough travel, for our third game of the weekend our guys played hard and as a team. It still wasn’t quite 60 minutes the way we wanted it to be. We got on our heels a bit in the second period and too many penalties.”

Keefe also said he was extremely pleased with the Greyhounds defensive play in the latter stages of the win.

“On the defensive side of the game especially, our guys committed to playing the way we needed to to win on the road. That was reflected in that we don’t get scored on today five-on-five or four-on four. It was a five-on-three goal that beat us. I really liked our commitment to defensive hockey today, especially once we got that 2-0 lead.”

“The final five minutes of the game was some of the best defensive hockey we’ve played all season long,” Keefe said. “That’s against a team that’s desperate and on home ice and they’ve got some elite players that can make things tough on you. I liked how we shut things down there in the tail end of the game.”

Goaltender Brandon Halverson made 30 saves in the win.

Spencer Watson, on the power play in the second period, had the lone goal for the Frontenacs. Goaltender Lucas Peressini stopped 26 shots.

“Trips like this that are this long, it becomes easy to make excuses and easy to cut corners,” said Keefe. “We encouraged our guys to see it through and stick with it. I liked our commitment to it in all three games. Any time we had our lapses or down time in games, we recovered to find our way through it. There were some positive things there and those are the positives that you look to take from these types of trips. To get the positive results is excellent but also I liked how we went about things.”

With the win, the Greyhounds record improves to 18-5-0-0, good for 36 points and top spot in the OHL’s West Division. The team currently has a 14-point lead over the Saginaw Spirit in the division.

With the loss Kingston’s record falls to 9-9-1-2 as they battle the Ottawa 67’s and Belleville Bulls for positioning in the East Division.

Next action for the Greyhounds is a pair of games on home ice next weekend as they host the Saginaw Spirit on Friday night before facing the Guelph Storm on Saturday. Puck drop on both nights is set for 7:07 p.m.

****
OTHER SCORES

In Guelph, Justin Nichols made 32 saves to lead the Guelph Storm to a 3-0 win over the Kitchener Rangers. Ben Harpur had a goal and two assists in the win for the Storm. Forward Tyler Bertuzzi chipped in with a pair of goals while Robby Fabbri assisted on two goals for Guelph. Kitchener goaltender Dawson Carty stopped 24 shots in the loss.

In Mississauga, Sam Babintsev scored twice and assisted on two other goals as the Mississauga Steelheads beat the Peterborough Petes 5-1. Goaltender Spencer Martin made 40 saves in the win. Jimmy Lodge and Brandon Devlin had a goal and an assist each for the Steelheads while Lucas Venuto also scored in the win. Michael Clarke had the lone goal for the Petes in the loss.

In Belleville, Kevin Labanc, Michael Webster and Andrew Mangiapane had two goals and an assist each as the Barrie Colts beat the Belleville Bulls 9-3. Garrett Hooey, Rasmus Andersson and Joseph Blandisi had a goal and an assist each in the win. Niki Petti had two goals and an assist for the Bulls while Jordan Subban also scored in the loss.

In Sarnia, Anthony DeAngelo scored twice and assisted on another goal as the Sarnia Sting beat the Saginaw Spirit 5-3. Nikita Korostelev, Jordan Kyrou and Patrick White added a goal and an assist each in the win. Nick Moutry had two goals and an assist for Saginaw. Tye Felhaber also scored in the loss.

In Oshawa, Michael Dal Colle's goal at 6:21 of the third period to lift the Oshawa Generals to a 3-2 win over the Owen Sound Attack. Dal Colle had two goals and an assist in the win. Josh Sterk also scored in the win. Jeffrey Gilligan and Petris Palmu scored for Owen Sound while goaltender Jack Flinn made 33 saves in the loss.

File Photo: Soo Greyhounds forward Sergey Tolchinsky Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday