Speers continues hot streak for Greyhounds

When you're hot, you're hot.

And that's exactly what Blake Speers has been recently for the Soo Greyhounds.

The second-year forward scored three times on Sunday afternoon to lead the Greyhounds to a 6-4 win over the Windsor Spitfires at the Essar Centre in Ontario Hockey League action.

“Right now I’m just getting open and I’m playing with some really good players and they’re finding me for what seems to be tap-ins,” Speers said of his recent success.

The 17-year-old now has 16 goals and 36 points in 28 games this season, big well on their way to eclipse his 19-goal, 40-point performance from his rookie season.

Speers has nine goals in his last six games and five in two games over the weekend homestand for the Greyhounds.

“His skating has been exceptional,” Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe said of the sophomore forward and his recent success. “He’s moving his feet. He’s playing fast.”

“A lot of the goals he’s been scoring are coming off of going to the net,” Keefe added. “They’ve been borderline easy goals in terms of tap-ins but he’s in the right place. He’s moving his feet.”

Speers and linemates Jared McCann and Zach Senyshyn combined for seven points in Sunday's win. McCann had a goal and an assist while Senyshyn added a pair of assists.

Bryan Moore had two goals and an assist for the Greyhounds in the win while Sergey Tolchinsky set up three goals as the Greyhounds erased a 3-1 deficit in the final 40 minutes.

“That’s the way the game should have been from the get-go,” Keefe said of the final two periods. “That’s what we’re capable of. Obviously it was a really poor start for a lot of reasons for a lot of players. The response was good. We had some faith that we were going to be able to generate offence and come back from that. We just had to stop the bleeding.”

Brandon Halverson got the start for the Greyhounds but was pulled in the opening period after surrendering three goals on nine shots. Joseph Raaymakers stopped 19 shots the rest of the way.

“Raaymakers did a nice job of coming in and you could feel that things were going to be okay in that department,” Keefe said.

“Raaymakers coming isn’t so much because of the goaltending, sometimes it’s just to stop things and change things up,” Keefe also said. “Things weren’t good in front of Halvy either. We were getting out-played, out-shot. We were turning pucks over left and right.”

Trevor Murphy, Ryan Foss, Slater Doggett and Ryan Moore scored for Windsor. Doggett's goal came on a penalty shot in the third period. Spitfires goaltender Alex Fotinos stopped 29 shots.

“It was our third game in three-and-a-half days so we wanted to get off to a good start and it was one of our better first periods of the year,” said Windsor Coach Bob Boughner. “Anytime you can chase a starting goalie, that’s great. We knew in between the first and second periods that they were going to come out a lot harder.

“Doggett scores that penalty shot goal and we’re still in the game but we just couldn’t hold them off,” Boughner added. “You score four goals on the road, you should give yourself a chance to get a point or two.”

With the win, the Greyhounds improve to 24-6-0-2 and hit the 50-point mark. The Spitfires drop to 11-18-1-0 with the loss.

The Greyhounds return to action on Thursday night when they begin a short two-game road trip in Guelph against the Storm before playing their final game before Christmas the following night in Kitchener.

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OTHER SCORES

In London, Owen MacDonald scored a pair of goals to lead the London Knights to a 5-2 win over the Peterborough Petes. Christian Dvorak added a goal and two assists while Mitchell Marner had a goal and an assist. Michael McCarron also scored for London. Scott Smith stopped 40 shots for the Petes in the loss. Josh MacDonald and Jonathan Ang scored for the Petes.

In Mississauga, Roy Radke had two goals and an assist to lead the Barrie Colts to a 6-1 win over the Mississauga Steelheads. Garrett Hooey chipped in with a goal and two assists while Andrew Mangiapane and Kevin Lebanc added a goal and an assist. Joseph Blandisi also scored in the win. Goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 33 shots for the Colts. Lucas Venuto had the lone goal for the Steelheads while goaltender Spencer Martin stopped 37 shots.

In North Bay, Mike Amadio scored a power play goal at 3:50 of overtime to lift the North Bay Battalion to a 2-1 win over the Kingston Frontenacs. Zach Poirier scored North Bay’s other goal while Conor McGlynn had the lone goal for the Frontenacs.

In Guelph, Aiden Wallace’s goal at 2:25 of the third period held up as the game winner as the Oshawa Generals held on for a 3-2 win over the Guelph Storm. The Generals jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Guelph scored a pair of third-period goals to cut the lead to one. Joe Manchurek and Sam Harding also scored for the Generals while Luke Cairns and Pius Suter had a goal and an assist each for the Storm. Guelph goaltender Bradley Vin Schubert made 42 saves in the loss.

To read our liv blog of Sunday's game, click here

(File photo: Soo Greyhounds forward Blake Speers. Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday)