Power play helps Greyhounds to victory

There were some positives but Soo Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe wasn’t overly pleased on Saturday night.

A strong third period and a pair of power play goals on a five-minute power play lifted the Greyhounds to a 6-3 win over the Kitchener Rangers in Ontario Hockey League action.

The Greyhounds twice 44 seconds apart on a match-penalty for slew-footing in the second period to Kitchener’s Liam Maaskant early in the second period. The goals gave the Greyhounds a 3-0 lead at the time.

“Special teams were a big factor in the game for both teams,” said Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe.

The Greyhounds finished the night 2-for-7 in the power play in the win while the Rangers scored twice in six man advantage opportunities.

“When you take a five-minute major and the Soo is a very skilled hockey club and they capitalized on that opportunity,” said Rangers coach Troy Smith. “The positive for us is that we were able to bounce back and stay in the game.”

The Greyhounds line of Sergey Tolchinsky, Jared McCann and Michael Bunting combined for 12 points. Tolchinsky set up four goals, McCann had two goals and two assists and Bunting finished the night with a goal and three assists.

“The line has been explosive and was explosive tonight,” said Keefe. “Especially in the third period when the game started to open up a little bit. They were dynamic. They gave us the type of effort in the third period that we needed. We need our best players to carry us.”

Keefe wasn’t totally pleased with the win.

“We liked the third period and we liked the fact that we found a way to win the game,” said Greyhounds coach Sheldon Keefe. “

“We leave here with a real positive but the first two periods weren’t great,” said Keefe. “The amount of penalties didn’t help the flow of the game at all.

Zach Senyshyn chipped in with a pair of goals while Anthony DeAngelo also scored for the Greyhounds.

Goaltender Brandon Halverson stopped 31 shots.

“He’s been playing his best hockey of the year the last couple of weeks and just continued with it today,” said Keefe. “He’s been rock-solid.”

The Greyhounds lost the services of forward Nick Ritchie late in the second period due to injury. The veteran is suffering from concussion-like symptoms after taking a hit late in the frame. Ritchie also got into a fight on the play against Kitchener’s Mason Kohn.

“We’ve got to get him evaluated,” Keefe said. “He’s going to miss some time.”

The incident led to another fight on the same stoppage as DeAngelo fought Kitchener’s Max Iafrate. Because Iafrate was given an instigator penalty, DeAngelo will not be hit with a suspension for the second fight in the same stoppage.

Iafrate, Ryan MacInnis and Adam Mascherin scored for the Rangers while goaltender Jake Paterson stopped 35 shots.

“I was happy that we didn’t quit,” said Smith. “We lose key overage guys on the back-end and have forwards playing defence and it’s easy to shut it down. Our guys didn’t do that and we would have loved to have gotten the win but the character we showed, I’m extremely happy with.”

The game marked the return to Sault Ste. Marie for former Greyhounds forward David Miller. Miller was dealt to the Rangers in the deal that saw the Greyhounds acquire Justin Bailey.

“He’s been great,” Smith said of Miller. “He’s added some skill and is a really good character and team guy. The guys love him. Every day he’s getting better and getting more acclimated with his surroundings.”

The Greyhounds record now sits at 45-11-0-2 while the Rangers fall to 27-20-3-6 as they continue to battle for playoff positioning in the Western Conference.

The Greyhounds are back in action next weekend when they host the Windsor Spitfires on Friday night and the London Knights on Sunday afternoon.

****
OTHER SCORES

In Ottawa, Nathan Todd and Dante Salituro had two goals each as the Ottawa 67’s beat the Mississauga Steelheads 7-3. Jeremiah Addison and Evan deHaan chipped in with a goal and an assist each while Trent Mallette also scored for the 67’s. Bobby MacIntyre, Nathan Bastien and Brandon Devlin scored for Mississauga.

In Erie, Connor McDavid had two goals and three assists to lead the Erie Otters to an 8-2 win over the Peterborough Petes. Alex DeBrincat added two goals and an assist for Erie while Nick Baptiste and Remi Elie had a goal and two assists each. Taylor Raddysh and Dylan Strome also scored for Erie. Greg Betzold and Jonathan Ang scored for Peterborough.

In Belleville, Michael Cramarossa had a goal and two assists to lead the Belleville Bulls to a 6-1 win over the Saginaw Spirit. Adam Bignell and Brett Gustavsen had a goal and an assist each for Belleville while Justin Lemcke and Stephen Harper set up two goals each. Brett Welychka, Miki Petti and Maurizio Colella also scored for Belleville. Kris Bennett had the lone goal for Saginaw.

In Oshawa, Evan McEneny’s second period goal on the power play held up as the game-winner as the Kingston Frontenacs beat the Oshawa Generals 5-4. Jarkko Parikka, Sam Field, Lawson Crouse and Spencer Watson also scored for the Frontenacs. Anthony Cirelli had two goals and an assist for Oshawa while Mitchell Vande Sompel and Brent Pedersen also scored.

In Plymouth, Sean Callaghan scored at 19:55 of the third period to lift the Plymouth Whalers to a 3-2 win over the Sarnia Sting. Victor Crus Rydberg and Mathew Campagna also scored for Plymouth. Alex Black and Troy Lajuenesse scored for Sarnia.

In Barrie, Brendan Lemieux had two goals and an assist to lead the Barrie Colts to a 6-4 win over the Niagara IceDogs. Joseph Blandisi also scored twice for Barrie. Roy Radke and Andrew Mangiapane had the other Colts goals. Johnny Corneil, Ryan Mantha, Brendan Perlini and Vince Dunn scored for Niagara.

In Owen Sound, Thomas Schemitsch and Ethan Szypula had a goal and two assists as the Owen Sound Attack beat the Guelph Storm 4-1. Daniel Milne and Holden Cook also scored for the Attack. Chris Marchese had the lone goal for Guelph.