Next up: Conference final

GUELPH, ONT. – The Soo Greyhounds are off to the Ontario Hockey League’s Western Conference final.

The team has now won eight consecutive playoff games after a 3-2 victory over the Guelph Storm at the Sleeman Centre on Tuesday evening.

It wasn't their best, but the Greyhounds held on for the win after building a lead on the Storm in the game.

“I didn't think we played very well, certainly not as well as we've played in the previous games,” said Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe. “The positive thing was we played a desperate team with their backs against the wall. They pushed back quite a bit and we didn't break.

“It was our first test as a team in these playoffs here,” said Keefe. “This one was more of a playoff-type feel like we expected it to be given that it was an elimination game.”

The teams skated to a scoreless opening period before the Greyhounds took a 3-1 lead in the second period thanks to three goals in a six minute span. Bryan Moore opened the scoring on a redirection of a feed from Tyler Ganly. Jared McCann then converted a feed from Michael Bunting to make it 2-0.

On the McCann goal, Bunting and Moore won a battle behind the Guelph goal to start the play.

Nick Ritchie scored on a deke in tight to increase the lead to three before Pius Suter scored for Guelph late in the period to make it 3-1 heading into the final period.

In the third period, Suter would score to cut further into the lead but the Storm couldn't find the equalizer.

Brandon Halverson got the start in goal for the Greyhounds and stopped 28 shots.

“We keep talking about it but it just shows that he’s a very good goalie and that the confidence we have in him is warranted,” Keefe said. “He was very good and we've come to expect it from Halvy. He's been very good for quite some time now”

Storm goaltender Bradley Van Schubert stopped 32 shots while Jason Dickinson assisted on two goals.

Greyhounds defenceman Anthony DeAngelo didn't see action in the third period of the game and Keefe declined comment on the reason why.

The Greyhounds now await the start of the OHL’s Western Conference final where they will face the Erie Otters. The Otters swept the London Knights in the other Western Conference semi-final.

A schedule for the Western Conference final will be announced at a later date.

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OTHER SCORES

All three other conference semi-final series’ were in action on Tuesday night after days off on Monday.

In St. Catharines, Billy Jenkins scored three times to lead the Niagara IceDogs to a 7-3 win over the Oshawa Generals. The Generals now lead the Eastern Conference semi-final series 2-1. Carter Verhaeghe and Aleksander Mikulovich added a goal and two assists each for Niagara while Josh Ho-Sang assisted on three goals.

Brendan Perlini and Mikkel Aagaard also scored for Niagara. Brandon Hope stopped 38 shots.

Tobias Lindberg, Aidan Wallace and Josh Brown scored for Oshawa.

The series continues on Thursday night in St. Catharines.

In North Bay, Brenden Miller’s goal at 18:15 of the second period was the game-winner as the North Bay Battalion beat the Barrie Colts 4-2. Nick Moutrey, Ryan Kujawinski and Ray Huethrr also scored for the Battalion.

Joseph Blandisi and Justin Scott scored for Barrie.

North Bay now has a 2-1 series lead with game four set for Thursday night in North Bay.

In London, the Erie Otters broke a 2-2 tie with three goals in the third period as they competed a four-game sweep of the London Knights with a 5-2 win.

Devin Williams made 35 saves for the Otters while Connor McDavid and Dylan Strome had a goal and an assist each. Kyle Maksimovich, Taylor Raddysh and Travis Dermott also scored for Erie.

Julius Bergman and Max Domi scored for London.

The Otters swept the series and will now face the Soo Greyhounds in the Western Conference final.