With new faces, Greyhounds beat Spirit (update)

For the first time in a while, the Soo Greyhounds played with much of their primary lineup.

All four of the Greyhounds new acquisitions and three members who competed in the recent World Junior Hockey Championships, all returned to action Friday as the Greyhounds beat the Saginaw Spirit 3-1 at the Dow Event Center in Saginaw.

“It felt very much like the first exhibition game of the season,” Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We had four new faces and three guys that haven’t played for us in a month or so.

“It was a very unorganized game,” Keefe added. “We didn’t really play with any structure or any purpose. It was a game where we had to rely on our goaltender and he won us the game.”

Brandon Halverson made 33 saves.

“He looked very focused right from warmup,” Keefe said of Halverson. “He was very prepared and it showed early on in the game. We had to rely on him way more than we wanted to tonight. He was very good. It was tough to see him get scored on because he deserved the shutout tonight.”

After a scoreless opening period, the Greyhounds scored a pair of goals in the second period before the two teams traded goals in the third.

The game was the first in a Greyhounds uniform for three players – Nick Ritchie, Connor Boland and Anthony DeAngelo.

“They all have a lot to offer once they get settled in,” Keefe said of the trio.

Boland picked up an assist in the win.

“I really liked Boland’s game,” Keefe said of the overage blueliner. “He’s probably the guy I knew the least about and had seen the least. He was really sound and I was really encouraged with what I saw from him."

Michael Bunting scored a pair of goals for the Greyhounds in his first game back from a league-imposed suspension.

“He played fast and he played hard,” Keefe said. “One goal was a deflection and the other was a great pass from (Sergey) Tolchinsky. He finds ways to produce and score.”

Keigan Goetz had the other goal for the Greyhounds in the win.

Mitchell Stephens had the lone goal for Saginaw in the loss while recently-acquired goaltender Evan Cormier stopped 33 shots. Cormier was acquired this weekend in a trade with the North Bay Battalion in a deal that saw Nick Moutry dealt to North Bay.

With the win, the Greyhounds improve to 29-9-0-2 while Saginaw falls to 18-18-1-1 with the loss.

The Greyhounds return to action on Saturday night in Plymouth against the Whalers.

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OTHER SCORES

In Kingston, Evan McEneny and Samuel Schutt scored shootout goals to lift the Kingston Frontenacs to a 3-2 win over the Oshawa Generals. Goaltender Lucas Peressini made 44 saves in the win. Roland McKeown and Juho Lammikko scored in regulation time for Kingston. Sam Harding and Tobias Lindberg scored for Oshawa.

In Plymouth, Sonny Milano scored a pair of goals and assisted on two others as the Plymouth Whalers beat the North Bay Battalion 6-3. Yannick Rathgeb had a goal and two assists for the Whalers while Connor Chatham and Gianluca Curcuruto chipped in with a goal and an assist each. Josh Wesley had the other goal for Plymouth in the win. Ryan Kujawinski, Mike Amadio and Nick Paul scored for North Bay in the loss.

In Guelph, Jimmy Lodge scored 56 seconds into overtime to give the Mississauga Steelheads a 2-1 win over the Guelph Storm. Jacob Brennan stopped 31 shots for the Steelheads. Stephen Gibson had the other Mississauga goal in the win. Tyler Bertuzzi had the lone Guelph goal.

In Kitchener, Jake Paterson stopped all 29 shots he faced in his debut for the Kitchener Rangers in a 5-0 win over the Belleville Bulls. Darby Llewellyn scored a pair of goals for Kitchener while Gustaf Franzen, Adam Mascherin and Connor Bunnaman also scored in the win. Belleville goaltender Charlie Graham got the start and stopped 35 shots in two periods of work before being pulled after giving up five goals. Connor Hicks stopped 16 shots in the third period.

In London, six different players had goals as the Erie Otters beat the London Knights 6-2. Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist in the win while Nicholas Baptiste, Kyle Pettit, Darren Raddysh, Quentin Maskimovich and Nick Betz also scored in the win. Dylan Strome picked up three assists for the Otters. Julius Bergman and Matt Rupert scored for the Knights in the loss.

In Ottawa, Travis Konecny had two goals and two assists to lead the Ottawa 67’s to an 8-4 win over the Windsor Spitfires. Taylor Davis added a goal and two assists for the 67’s in the win. Travis Barron and Sam Studnicka each scored twice for Ottawa. Ben Fanjoy also scored in the win. Lucas Venuto scored twice for Windsor while Hayden McCool chipped in with a goal and an assist for Windsor. Jamie Lewis also scored in the loss. Trevor Murphy set up three goals for Windsor.

In Sudbury, Brendan Perlini’s goal 42 seconds into the second period held up as the game winner as the Niagara IceDogs held on for a 5-4 win over the Sudbury Wolves. Carter Verhaeghe led the way with two goals and an assist for the IceDogs in a game that saw the Wolves nearly come back from a 5-1 deficit. Josh Ho-Sang assisted on three goals while Mikkel Aagaard and Christopher Paquette also scored for the IceDogs. Matt Schmalz assisted on three goals for the Wolves while Brady Pataki, Pavel Jenys, Kyle Capobianco and Chad Heffernan scored in the loss.

The scheduled game between Owen Sound and Sarnia was postponed and rescheduled for Sunday night at 6 p.m.