Greyhounds capture top spot (8 photos)

It’s signed, sealed and delivered for the Soo Greyhounds.

Thanks to a 12-1 win on Saturday night over the Windsor Spitfires, the Greyhounds clinched top spot in the Ontario Hockey League standings heading into the final day of the regular season.

It marks the first regular season title for the Greyhounds since the 1984-85 season.

Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe said the regular season title is nice, but secondary to what the team is really building towards.

“It’s something to be proud of and feel good about,” Keefe said. “I don’t think we’re planning a parade tomorrow. All I said to the guys is that every team in this league has to play 68 games and anytime you go through that and come out and say you were first and finished at the top, that’s something to be proud of and feel good about.

“Everyone knows that this is secondary to what really matters in the playoffs,” Keefe added. “This would be forgotten pretty quickly if we don’t get it done in the playoffs.”

Nick Ritchie paced the Greyhounds offensively with two goals and three assists. Blake Speers scored twice and added an assist for the Greyhounds, as did Sergey Tolchinsky while Bryan Moore and Jared McCann also had three-point nights with a goal and two assists each.

Anthony DeAngelo also scored twice for the Greyhounds while Darnell Nurse and Jean Dupuy also scored.

“We got very lucky on goal one and I thought we made some really nice plays after that to score great goals,” said Keefe. “We made some good plays with the puck against a tired team that allowed us to capitalize on some great chances but it’s a tough game all-around to play.”

In total, 15 players had points in the Greyhounds victory.

Brandon Halverson got the start and made 11 saves before Joseph Raaymakers came in and played the second half of the game, stopping all 17 shots he faced in the process.

Keefe said the plan going into the game was to get Raaymakers into the contest.

“The plan was to go half tonight because we wanted Raaymakers to get in the net,” said Keefe. “If he’s going to play the rest of the way, it’s probably going to be in a relief type of position so it was good in that sense.”

Slater Doggett had the lone Windsor goal in the loss.

“Coming in, we knew we were going to be in a lot of trouble with their full lineup,” said Windsor Coach Bob Boughner. “You never predict the score that’s out there now. It’s almost a reflection of our whole season. Getting down early, soft goals and then the heads go down. After that, it’s tough giving (the Greyhounds) a one- or two-goal lead let along six or seven.”

Brendan Johnston got the start for Windsor, stopping 13 of 22 shots in two periods of work. Alex Fotinos stopped two shots in the third period.

“I left Johnny in more because (Friday night in Sarnia) he didn’t have a good game and I wanted him to rebound,” Boughner said. “He was looking at the bench after (the lead grew) the point was to him when there was a TV timeout, I told him ‘Everybody else has to battle through this. This isn’t fun, it’s miserable for everybody and you’re no different so get in there and battle.’

“It was just more so teaching,” Boughner said. “Sometimes you’ve got to battle through adversity.”

With the win, the Greyhounds enter the final game of the regular season with a 53-12-0-2 record and 108 points, one short of the Greyhounds team record which was set in the 1984-85 season.

Windsor finishes the season out of the playoffs with a 24-40-2-2 record.

The Greyhounds wrap up the regular season on Sunday afternoon when they host the Kitchener Rangers in a 2:07 p.m. start.

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OTHER SCORES

In St. Catharines, Josh Ho-Sang had a goal and two assists as the Niagara IceDogs beat the Mississauga Steelheads 5-2. Anthony DiFruscia chipped in with a pair of goals while Brendan Perlini had a goal and an assist. Mitchell Fitzmorris also scored for Niagara. Cameron Zanussi stopped 39 shots for Mississauga while Bobby MacIntyre and Stefan LeBlanc had the Steelheads goals.

In Belleville, Brett Gustavsen had two goals and two assists as the Belleville Bulls won their final regular season game at the Yardmen Arena, beating the Sudbury Wolves 6-3. Adam Laishram had two goals and an assist while Michael Cramarossa added three assists for the Bulls. Niki Petti and Justin Lemcke also scored for the Bulls. Chad Heffernan, Ivan Kashtanov and Charley Graaskamp scored for Sudbury.

In Plymouth, Daniel Dekoning made 31 saves as the Erie Otters beat the Plymouth Whalers 5-1. Dylan Strome had a goal and two assists for the Otters while Connor McDavid and Kyle Maksimovich added a goal and an assist each. Alex DeBrincat and Taylor Raddysh also scored. Yannick Rathgeb had the lone Whalers goal.

In Saginaw, Adam McPhail, Vladislav Kodola and Mitchell Stephens scored as the Saginaw Spirit beat the Kitchener Rangers 3-1. Goaltender Evan Cormier made 24 saves. Max Iafrate had the lone goal for Kitchener while goaltender Jake Paterson stopped 32 shots.

In Barrie, after falling behind 2-0, the Kingston Frontenacs reeled off four unanswered goals to beat the Barrie Colts 4-2. Jared Steege, Roland McKeown, Lawson Crouse and Juho Lammikko scored for Kingston. Joseph Blandisi and Justin Scott scored for the Colts.

In Owen Sound, Daniel Milne’s goal at 8:46 of the third period was the game-winner as the Owen Sound Attack beat the Sarnia Sting 4-3. Milne had a pair of goals while Thomas Schemitsch and Kyle Platzer also scored. Erik Bradford assisted on three goals for Owen Sound. Anthoyn Salinitri, Patrick White and Alexandre Renaud scored for Sarnia.

(PHOTO: Soo Greyhounds players celebrate a first period goal by Darnell Nurse during a game against the visiting Windsor Spitfires on March 21, 2015 at the Essar Cenre in Sault Ste. Marie. Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday)