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Greyhounds winning streak snapped (update)

After a road trip that saw them extend their winning streak to eight games, the Soo Greyhounds had their winning streak snapped on Friday night.

After a road trip that saw them extend their winning streak to eight games, the Soo Greyhounds had their winning streak snapped on Friday night.

The Greyhounds dropped a 4-3 shootout decision against the Saginaw Spirit at the Essar Centre to open a short two-game homestand.

“It’s what we expected. We expected them to rely on their goaltender (Jake Paterson) to give them a chance in the game,” said Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe. “With that said, we thought they would look to find a way to get one or two (goals) and then lean on their goaltender to give them a chance and that’s exactly how it played out.”

“We talked about getting off on the front foot and not giving them any opportunities to get leads because we knew it would be tough to score today,” Keefe also said. “All of the things that we talked about and warned (the players) about came to fruition.”

Paterson made 44 saves for the Spirit and stopped all eight Greyhounds shooters in the shootout.

“He made some unbelievable saves at key times for us today,” said Spirit Coach Greg Gilbert. “He kept us in there when we needed him and the guys battled hard in front of him.”

Artem Artemov had the shootout winner for the Spirit. In regulation time, Connor Brown scored a pair of goals for Saginaw while Dylan Sadowy also scored. Defenceman Greg DiTomasso set up a pair of goals, including the game-tying goal by Brown with 1:25 left in the third period.

“We can’t quit for a second,” Gilbert said of the Spirit tying the game late. “We’re not a top-end skilled team. We do have some skilled players obviously but for us to win games we have to stick together shift after shift and just find a way and keep battling.”

Greyhounds goaltender Brandon Halverson stopped 28 shots in the loss along with seven of eight Saginaw shooters in the shootout. Kyle Jenkins, David Miller and Bryan Moore scored for the Greyhounds in the loss.

“Our first two periods, we were just sleep-walking,” Keefe said. “It’s like we went backwards six weeks. All of the things that we had learned and showed that we did positively on the road to give us a chance there, it’s like we came back here and all of a sudden we had to be cool on home ice. We were very poor for 40 minutes and it cost us the second point.”

With the loss, the Greyhounds record falls to 18-5-0-1 while Saginaw’s record improves to 11-12-1-1 and sit tied with the Sarnia Sting for second behind the Greyhounds in the OHL’s West Division.

The Greyhounds wrap up their short homestand on Saturday night when they host the Guelph Storm in a 7:07 p.m. start. On Sunday, the Greyhounds wrap up their weekend with an afternoon game in Sudbury against the Wolves.

HOUND BITES: Soo Greyhounds overage forward Jean Dupuy has signed an entry-level contract with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, the NHL organization announced on Friday evening.

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OTHER SCORES

In Kingston, Lucas Peressini stopped all 31 shots he faced as the Kingston Frontenacs blanked the Kitchener Rangers 5-0. Lawson Crouse scored three times to pace the Frontenacs offensively. Corey Pawley and Juho Lammikko added a goal and an assist each in the win. Dawson Carty got the start for Kitchener and stopped 22 of 27 shots in 40 minutes of action. Matthew Greenfield played the third period and stopped all nine shots he faced for the Rangers.

In Sarnia, Patrick White's goal at 7:44 of the third period was the game-winner as the Sarnia Sting got the Owen Sound Attack 2-1. Brandon Lindberg also scored for Sarnia while Jeffrey Gilligan had the lone Owen Sound goal.

In London, Nick Betz and Nick Baptiste scored shootout goals to lift the Erie Otters to a 3-2 win over the London Knights. Otters goaltender Devin Williams made 35 saves in the win while Alex DeBrincat and Kyle Pettit scored goals in regulation time for the Otters. Mitch Marner and Drake Rymsha scored for the Knights in the loss. Knights goaltender Michael Giugovaz stopped 32 shots.

In Mississauga, Josh Burnside had the game-winner early in the third period as the Mississauga Steelheads beat the Belleville Bulls 3-2. Mississauga goaltender Spencer Martin made 36 saves while jimmy Lodge and Michael MacLeod also scored in the win. Belleville goaltender Connor Hicks stopped 39 shots. Chad Heffernan and Matt Luff scored in the loss.

In Ottawa, Brendan Bell and Nathan Todd had shootout goals to lift the Ottawa 67’s to a 2-1 win over the Peterborough Petes. Travis Konecny scored for the 67’s in regulation time while Josh MacDonald scored for the Petes.

In Sudbury, Jason Dickinson scored a pair of goals and set up another to lead the Guelph Storm to a 5-3 win over the Sudbury Wolves. Goaltender Justin Nichols made 39 saves in the win while Pius Suter added a goal and an assist. Tyler Bertuzzi and Chadd Baumann also scored in the win. Nathan Pancel had a pair of goals while Brody Silk added a goal and an assist in the loss for Sudbury.

In Oshawa, Carter Verhaeghe had two goals and an assist to lead the Niagara IceDogs to a 4-1 win over the Oshawa Generals. Brandon Hope made 34 saves in the win while Mikkel Aagaard and Anthony DiFruscia also scored in the win while Josh Ho-Sang had two assists. Michael Dal Colle had the lone goal for Oshawa.

In Windsor, Jamie Lewis had the game-winning goal at 12:08 of the third period to lead the Windsor Spitfires to a 5-4 win over the Plymouth Whalers.  Mitch Jones, Francesco Villardi, Matt Mistele and Sonny Milano scored for the Whalers in the loss. Logan Brown, Hayden McCool, Aaron Luchuk and Christian DiGiacinto scored for the Spitfires in the win.


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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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