Greyhounds clinch division title

The Soo Greyhounds have officially clinched top spot in the Ontario Hockey League’s West Division.

Thanks to a 6-0 win over the Sarnia Sting in Sarnia on Monday afternoon, the Greyhounds secured top spot in the division just days after clinching a playoff spot.

The Greyhounds opened up a 3-0 lead less than six minutes into the contest and led 4-0 through 20 minutes before cruising to the win.

“We were really good early in the game as we needed to be and wanted to be in the first 10 minutes,” said Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe. “We were able to build a nice lead and we just played well. We were on the attack and in control of things. Once you’re able to build that lead so quickly, the rest of the game after that was somewhat throwaway hockey. We were good when we needed to be early on and the rest was a bit of a throwaway.

Brandon Halverson made 30 saves for his second consecutive shutout after stopping 33 shots in Saturday’s 5-0 Greyhounds victory over the Plymouth Whalers.

“He’s been very good,” Keefe said. “All four games he’s played (in the last week), he’s been really good. He’s looked very confident. He was very much in control (Monday). IT didn’t look like anything was going to get by him. He’s in a zone and it’s good to see.”

Halverson hasn’t allowed a goal in 170:50 and gave up just one goal on the road trip.

Justin Bailey, Anthony DeAngelo, Jared McCann and Keigan Goetz had the first-period goals for the Greyhounds.

“It’s even harder when you’re on your third road game in four days and managed the type of schedule we’ve had in the last couple of weeks,” Keefe said of keeping the Greyhounds motivation high after the quick start. “We had a good third period. In the second period Sarnia came hard at us and we weren’t very good but we had a good push-back in the third.”

Michael Bunting had the final two goals for the Greyhounds.

“We wanted to make the third period easier on ourselves by working harder on loose pucks,” Keefe said of the final period in which they outshot Sarnia 14-6. “If we did that, we’d have the puck more and the pace wouldn’t be quite as hard. We were a little bit casual in the second period and Sarnia out-worked us and the game changed a little bit. IT was our third game in four days and we got that big lead so after the 10-minute mark of the first period, the rest of the game was pretty much throwaway hockey.”

Taylor Dupuis got the start in goal for the Sting and stopped eight of 12 shots in the opening period before making way for Justin Fazio, who stopped 20 of 22 shots in the final 40 minutes.

With the win, the Greyhounds improve to 42-11-0-2 while Sarnia falls to 25-23-4-3.

The Greyhounds return to action on Wednesday night when they open up a stretch of five-straight on home ice when they host the Sudbury Wolves.

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OTHER SCORES

In Guelph, Zac Leslie scored at 3:01 of overtime to give the Guelph Storm a 5-4 win over the Windsor spitfires. Tyler Bertuzzi had a goal and three assists for the Storm while goaltender Justin Nichols made 46 saves. Pius Suter chipped in with a goal and two assists for Guelph. Leslie and Givani Smith added a goal and an assist each. Logan Brown set up three goals for Windsor while Patrick Sanvido, Lucas Venuto, Slater Doggett and Anthony Stefano had the Spitfires goals.

In Kingston, Liam Herbst stopped 34 shots as the Ottawa 67’s beat the Kingston Frontenacs 2-1. Brendan Bell and Curtis Meighan scored for Ottawa while Sam Field had the lone Kingston goal.

In London, Michael Giugovaz stopped 31 shots as the London Knights beat the Saginaw Spirit 4-1. Mitchell Marner had a goal and an assist for London giving him 100 points on the season. Max Domi set up a pair of goals while Matt Rupert, Aaron Berisha and Chris Martenet also scored for London. Evan Cormier made 38 saves for Saginaw while Tye Felhaber scored the lone Spirit goal.

In Mississauga, Daniel Dekoning made 24 saves as the Erie Otters blanked the Mississauga Steelheads 4-0. Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists for the Otters while Remi Elie set up two goals. Nicholas Baptiste, Mason Marchment and Cory Genovese also scored for Erie. Jacob Brennan made 33 saves for Mississauga.

In Belleville, Brett Welychka scored a pair of goals as the Belleville Bulls beat the Kitchener Rangers 6-2. Stephen Harper and David Tomasek had a goal and an assist each while Jordan Subban and Matt Luff completed the scoring for the Bulls. Nick Magyar had a goal and an assist for Kitchener while Connor Bunnaman had the other Rangers goal.

In Oshawa, Jeremy Brodeur stopped all 17 shots he faced as the Oshawa Generals beat the Sudbury Wolves 7-0. Michael Dal Colle had a two goals and an assist while Aidan Wallace also scored twice for Oshawa. Joe Manchurek had a goal and an assist for Oshawa. Anthony Cirelli and Kenny Huether also scored for the Generals. Samuel Tanguay stopped 39 shots for the Wolves.

In Peterborough, Josh MacDonald’s goal at 12:30 of the third period was the game-winner as the Peterborough Petes scored three unanswered goals to beat the North Bay Battalion 3-2. Nathan Pancel and Josh Coyle also scored for the Petes. Nick Moutrey and Alex Henriksson scored for North Bay.