Greyhounds put on show against Knights

It was an afternoon when the nation was looking on and the Soo Greyhounds responded.

In a nationally televised home game at the Essar Centre, the Greyhounds used six goals in the final 40 minutes of action to skate to an 8-3 Ontario Hockey League victory over the London Knights Sunday.

It was a game that Coach Sheldon Keefe was very pleased with.

“I told the guys (after the game) I was happy for them,” said Keefe. “They represented themselves well on national tv in a game with the type of people we had out and the hoopla of the whole thing, could have gone badly for us but our guys were committed. It was good to see.”

The two teams traded goals in the opening frame before the Greyhounds broke things open in the second period.

“We wanted to be really good defensively and I thought we did that,” said Keefe. “A lot of that was through offense. With the people that we had out of our lineup, to do that against a quality team was positive to see.”

The Greyhounds were without six regulars in the game but depth played a major role, according to Keefe.

“Regardless of who we take out of our lineup, we still feel confident with our group,” Keefe said. “Our guys have a lot of confidence. We like our depth. When guys come out, our depth gets to play a little bit more. The style we play encourages offense and builds offense. Our depth guys showed that they can pick up where the other guys left off.”

Anthony DeAngelo had two goals and five points for the Greyhounds while Sergey Tolchinsky had a goal and two assists. Michael Bunting added a pair of goals. Jean Dupuy and Zach Senyshyn also scored.

Goaltender Brandon Halverson stopped 26 shots.

Jared McCann had a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds and earned the praises of his coach.

“He’s been playing excellent hockey,” Keefe said of the veteran forward. “He continued it and took it to another level today. He really accepted the challenge of playing against their best players we gave to him and his line today. He scored a big goal for us on the power play in the first period. He just really carried the play well. He was on the defensive side of the puck. He was working hard and moving his feet. He was a force tonight.”

McCann, who won a number of key faceoffs and was strong in general in the faceoff circle in the win, spoke of being challenged to face London’s top line in the game.

“I was pumped to get in the circle,” said McCann. “I was challenged (to play against London’s top line) and I like being challenged.”

Max Domi had a goal and an assist for the Knights while Matt Rupert and Aaron Berisha also scored. OHL leading scorer Mitch Marner, who played on the London top line with Domi and Christian Dvorak, was held to an assist in the loss.

Tyler Parsons got the start in goal, stopping 30 of 36 shots before making way for Michael Giugovaz early in the third period. Giugovaz stopped 10 of 12 shots the rest of the way.

“We talked about their speed before the game and trying to neutralize it in the neutral zone and we didn’t do a very good job of that,” said Knights Assistant Coach Dylan Hunter, who spoke to media in lieu of Head Coach Dale Hunter, who declined comment when approached by reporters.

The win improves the Greyhounds record to 47-11-0-2 while London falls to 37-21-0-3.

The Greyhounds come out of the weekend having won nine in a row and hold a 10-point lead over the Erie Otters in the OHL’s Western Conference with eight games remaining.

Meanwhile, the Knights are nine points behind Erie and lead the Guelph Storm by five points as the three teams head down the stretch in the Midwest Division.

The Greyhounds are back in action on the road next weekend when they are on the road for three games beginning Thursday night in Windsor. The weekend continues with games in Sarnia on Friday and Owen Sound on Sunday afternoon before playing their final road game of the regular season on Mar. 11 in North Bay.

Game Notes: Keigan Goetz missed the game for the Greyhounds as he served the first game of a two-game suspension for a slew-foot on Friday night.

The Greyhounds remain hopeful that the injury bug could be subsiding. Keefe said Sunday night that Nick Ritchie (concussion), Tyler Ganly (knee) and Blake Speers (shoulder) all skated in practice on Saturday and will skate again on Monday. Darnell Nurse (knee) was in Edmonton to be looked at by the Edmonton Oilers doctors but Keefe said the Greyhounds captain could be back on the ice on Monday. Justin Bailey could be another week- to 10-days away.

“We’re going to be extra cautious but all of our guys we feel are in that one- to two-week window,” Keefe said.

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OTHER SCORES

In Guelph, Justin Nichols made 32 saves as the Guelph Storm beat the Kitchener Rangers 3-1. Pius Suter had a goal and an assist for the Storm while Phil Baltisberger and Tyler Boston also scored. Ryan MacInnis scored for Kitchener.

In Mississauga, Bryson Cianfrone’s goal at 16:15 of the third period was the game winner as the Mississauga Steelheads beat the Sudbury Wolves 4-3. Jacob Brennan made 39 saves for the Steelheads while Marcus Dickerson, Nathan Bastien and Brandon Devlin also scored for Mississauga. Pavel Jenys scored twice for Sudbury while Matt Schmalz also scored. Wolves goaltender Samuel Tanguay stopped 31 shots.

In Windsor, Jakob Chychrun, Pavel Zacha, Davis Brown and Stephen Pierog scored as the Sarnia Sting beat the Windsor Spitfires 4-2. Windsor goaltender Alex Fotinos stopped 46 shots. Hayden McCool and Slater Doggett had the Windsor goals.

In Oshawa, Jeremy Brodeur made 22 saves as the Oshawa Generals beat the Peterborough Petes 4-1. Kenny Huether and Brent Pedersen had a goal and an assist each for the Generals while Mitchell Vande Sompel and Bradley Latour also scored. Petes goaltender Dylan Wells stopped 43 shots. Hunter Garlent had Peterborough’s lone goal.

(File Photo: Soo Greyhounds forward Jared McCann. Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday)