Greyhounds sweep road trip with shutout

It wasn’t perfect but it was better.

After a 3-1 win over the Saginaw Spirit on Friday night that Coach Sheldon Keefe said was “very much like the first exhibition game of the season,” the Greyhounds blanked the Plymouth Whalers on Saturday 3-0 at Compuware Sports Arena.

“Defensively it was better,” Keefe said of Saturday’s win. “There were a lot less odd man rushes against. The shots and chances against were a lot lower. From that end of it, it was better.”

With as many new faces in the lineup for the trip, Keefe added that finding chemistry will take some time.

“We played alright,” Keefe said. “It’s going to take some time here to build some offensive concepts into our game. I still felt we were busy trying to find our new players, trying to make too cute a play when we could really established a presence in the offensive zone. It didn’t seem we were generating nearly as much as we’re capable of.”

Greyhounds netminder Brandon Halverson made 26 saves for the shutout in the win.

“It wasn’t nearly as tough a night on him as it was yesterday,” Keefe said. “We didn’t take as many penalties today. There were a couple of times where they had some looks to the net. He just looked really confident and prepared. If we had some cracks defensively, he gave us the sense that he was going to be there. This was two really strong games back-to-back.”

Jared McCann scored a pair of goals the Greyhounds in the win while Darnell Nurse also scored.

Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 33 shots for the Whalers.

The Whalers finished the night scoreless on three power plays in the loss.

“(Discipline) was better,” Keefe said. “We had the puck a lot which made it harder for us to take penalties. It made it easier on us there but we still took two penalties after whistles which I wasn’t excited about. There’s something to continue to work at there.

The Greyhounds were 1-for-6 on the power.

With the win, the Greyhounds improved to 30-9-0-2 while Plymouth falls to 13-23-2-1 with the loss.

The Greyhounds return to action on Wednesday night when they host the Saginaw Spirit.

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OTHER SCORES

In Kingston, Lucas Venuto scored a power play goal at 3:10 of overtime to lead the Windsor Spitfires to a 3-2 win over the Kingston Frontenacs. Markus Soberg had a pair of goals for Windsor while goaltender Brendan Johnston stopped 38 shots. Evan McEneny scored both goals for Kingston.

In Peterborough, Matthew Mancina stopped all 26 shots he faced as the Peterborough Petes beat the Oshawa 1-0. Hunter Garlent had the lone goal for the Petes in the win. Ken Appleby stopped 24 shots for the Generals.

In Sarnia, Justin Fazio stopped 36 shots as the Sarnia Sting beat the Guelph Storm 5-3. Davis Brown scored twice while Kevin Spinozzi set up a pair of goals for the Sting. Jakob Chychrun, Noah Bushnell and Daniel Nikandrov also scored in the win. Tyler Bertuzzi and Luke Cairns had a goal an assist for Guelph in the loss while Jason Dickinson also scored.

In Saginaw, Mark Shoemaker’s goal at 18:18 of the third period held up as the winner as the North Bay Battalion beat the Saginaw Spirit 3-2. Ryan Kujawinski and Ray Huether also scored for the Battalion. Jesse Barwell had a goal and an assist for Saginaw while Mitchell Stephens set up both goals. Dylan Sadowy also scored for the Spirit.

In Barrie, Joseph Blandisi had two goals and two assists as the Barrie Colts beat the Sudbury Wolves 6-3. Andrew Mangiapane scored three times in the win. Kevin Labanc had a goal and three assists Barrie. Jonathan Duchesne and Jeff Corbett had a goal and an assist for Sudbury while Danny Desrochers also scored in the loss.

In Owen Sound, Jack Flinn made 35 saves as the Owen Sound Attack beat the Belleville Bulls 4-1. Zach Nastasiuk had a goal and an assist in the win. Erik Bradford, Kyle Platzer and Jaden Lindo also scored for Owen Sound. Stephen Harper scored for Belleville.