Raaymakers shuts out Knights in Greyhounds win (update)

After giving up five goals 24 hours earlier, Soo Greyhounds rookie goaltender Joseph Raaymakers showed his ability to bounce back.

Raaymakers made 35 saves for his second shutout of the Ontario Hockey League season in a 4-0 blanking of the London Knights at the Budweiser Gardens.

“He’s a guy that does all the right things in terms of preparation mentally,” said Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe. “He seems to always be in the right frame of mind. Because of that he has the ability to respond like this. It was fun to watch him today”

The shutout came after a tough start in Windsor that, despite picking up the win in goal, saw the rookie stop 14 of 19 shots.

“He’s got a history of (bouncing back),” said Keefe. “In my experience with him, I think back to the U-17 development camp where I worked with him and he had a tough night one night and came back the next day with the exact same thing, a shutout. He was extremely strong.”

Special teams came up big for the Greyhounds in the win thanks to a pair of power play goals and two shorthanded markers in the win.

“(Special teams) seems to be coming on,” Keefe said. “Our penalty kill in particular has been very strong. We haven’t given up anything here in five games now. The two goals we’ve given up have both been five-on-three. Five-on-four we’ve been very strong. We’re starting to get it there. On the power play, we’ve come to expect it to produce for us and continue to do that.”

Jared McCann had one of each, both in the third period. McCann scored shorthanded at 13:37 of the final period with Knights goaltender Michael Giugovaz scrambling back into the London goal after being pulled for an extra attacker earlier in the Knights man advantage. McCann would add a power play maker with 2:41 left in the contest.

“It was great to see him get rewarded today,” Keefe said of the third-year forward. “It was good to see him get the power play goal there. He’s been shooting a lot of pucks. Maybe the (shorthanded) empty-netter is something to change his fortunes a little bit and get him back moving.”

Gabe Guertler had the Greyhounds other power play goal in the contest while Blake Speers, who had a pair of goals 24 hours earlier, scored shorthanded late in the second period for the Greyhounds other special teams goal in the contest.

“Our first two periods were excellent and that was a carry-over from last night,” said Keefe. “I liked how our guys responded and got it done in the second game of back-to-back nights on the road in a building that hasn’t been too friendly to us. For those two periods we were really good. We made things easy on (London) in the third. We opened the game up and they made us pay for it by coming heavy at us. Raaymakers was very sharp and gave us a chance to pull away after that.”

Giugovaz stopped 43 shots for the Knights in the loss.

With the win, the Greyhounds improve to 21-6-0-1 while the Knights drop to 15-10-0-2 with the loss.

The Greyhounds wrap up their three-game road trip on Sunday afternoon at the RBC Centre in Sarnia when they face the Sting in a 4 p.m. puck drop.

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OTHER SCORES

In Kingston, Samuel Schutt’s goal at 11:31 of the third period was the game-winner as the Kingston Frontenacs beat the Belleville Bulls 2-1. Kingston goaltender Lucas Peressini stopped 27 shots in the win while Juho Lammikko had the other Frontenacs goal. Niki Petti had the lone goal for Belleville.

In Sarnia, five different players had goals as the Sarnia Sting beat the North Bay Battalion 5-2. Troy Lajuenesse, Patrick White, Alexandre Renaud, Kevin Spinozzi and Stephen Pierog scored for the Sting in the win. Anthony DeAngelo and Daniel Nikandrov each added two assists for Sarnia. Miles Liberati had a goal and an assist for North Bay in the loss. Mike Amadio had the other Battalion goal.

In Guelph, Jason Dickinson had two goals and an assist as the Guelph Storm beat the Peterborough Petes 5-3. The Storm used a pair of third-period goals to break a 3-3 tie. Pius Suter Tyler Bertuzzi and Robby Fabbri had a goal and an assist each for the Storm in the win. Nick Ritchie and Josh MacDonald had a goal and an assist each for the Petes while Eric Cornel set up a pair of goals. Hunter Garlent also scored for the Petes in the loss.

In Kitchener, Michael McNiven made 31 saves as the Owen Sound Attack blanked the Kitchener Rangers 3-0. Kyle Platzer, Zach Nastasiuk and Damir Sharipzyanov scored in the win for Owen Sound. Dawson Carty made 31 saves for the Rangers in the loss.

In Mississauga, Jared Walsh scored at 7:19 of the third period to lift the Mississauga Steelheads to a 4-3 win over a short-staffed Plymouth Whalers team. The Whalers dressed just 15 skaters in the loss. Nathan Bastien, Jimmy Lodge and Sam Babintsev also scored for the Steelheads while Stefan LeBlanc and Everett Clark set up two goals each in the win. Matt Mistele scored a pair of goals for the Whalers in the loss. Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 44 shots. Sonny Milano added a goal and two assist for the Whalers.

In Ottawa, Dante Salituro had a goal and an assist to help the Ottawa 67’s to a 4-2 win over the Niagara IceDogs. Travis Konecny, Jacob Middleton and Dylan McDonald also scored for the 67’s. Carter Verhaeghe and Brendan Perlini had a goal and an assist each for Niagara.

In Sudbury, Aiden Wallace had two goals and an assist to lead the Oshawa Generals to a 7-2 win over the Sudbury Wolves. Mitchell Vande Sompel and Tobias Lindberg chipped in with a goal and two assists each for the Generals. Michael Turner added a goal and an assist in the win. Sonny Hertzberg and Stephen Desrocher also scored in the win. Bradley Latour set up three goals for the Generals while Chris Carlisle had two assists. Sudbury goaltender Troy Timpano stopped 46 shots in the loss. Matt Schmalz and Danny Desrochers scored for the Wolves.