Greyhounds look to force seventh game

The Soo Greyhounds will face elimination one more time on Saturday night.

After a 4-2 win over the Erie Otters on Thursday night in game five of the Ontario Hockey League’s Western Conference final, the Greyhounds are back in Erie for game six, trailing the best-of-7 series 3-2.

Much of the talk following game four in Erie, a game the Greyhounds lost 7-5 to fall behind 3-1 in the series, surrounded the Greyhounds discipline, specifically the types of penalties the team took in the loss.

“That’s been the issue really all series and the trend continued tonight,” said Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe following game four. “To this point in the series, we should know full well what that situation is. We just can’t take undisciplined penalties. We showed a lack of composure tonight and just continue to dig ourselves a hole at a time when we were playing good hockey. We just couldn’t control our emotions and then couldn’t get it done on special teams on either side.”

In game five, the Greyhounds took just a pair of penalties – a high sticking minor to Gabe Guertler in the second period and a delay of game penalty to Anthony DeAngelo late in the third.

That's a marked improvement for a team that had given up seven power play goals in the first four games before not surrendering a power play goal in the Otters two man advantages Thursday.

“It was a big thing for us to stay out of the box,” overage forward Bryan Moore told reporters following game five. “They’ve been scoring on us on their power plays and you don’t want to give them the opportunities to do that. Staying out of the scrums and all of the unnecessary stuff is key for us.”

As for the Otters, game six will see the return of veteran defenceman Kurtis MacDermid to the lineup.

MacDermid was handed an eight-game suspension by the OHL after a hit on Max Domi in game one of the Otters second round playoff series against the London Knights.

The overage blueliner will have to shake off some rust as he gets back in to the Otters lineup.

“He hasn’t played for a long time so there will be some rust,” said Erie Coach Kris Knoblauch. “It may take a while for him to get his game back but having him back in the lineup will help us.”

Puck drop on Saturday night is 7:30 p.m. If necessary, game seven is Monday night in Sault Ste. Marie.

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BY THE NUMBERS

Special Teams
Power Play: Greyhounds – 32.8 % (19-for-58); Otters – 28.3 % (15-for-53)
Penalty Kill: Otters – 89.8 % (killed 44 of 49 penalties); Greyhounds – 78.7 % (killed 48 of 61 penalties)

Scoring Leaders (Games Played-Goals-Assists-Points)
Greyhounds: Nick Ritchie (13-13-12-25); Anthony DeAngelo (12-0-15-15); Justin Bailey (13-7-7-14); Jared McCann (13-5-9-14); Michael Bunting (13-8-5-13)
Otters: Connor McDavid (14-18-19-37); Nicholas Baptiste (14-18-8-18); Dylan Strome (14-9-9-18); Remi Elie (14-2-14-16); Jake Marchment (13-6-6-12)

Goaltenders
Brandon Halverson (Greyhounds) – 10-3 record, 2.69 goals against average, 0.902 save percentage
Devin Williams (Erie) – 10-3 record, 2.81 goals against average, 0.906 save percentage

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GENERALS TAKE SERIES LEAD

In the Eastern Conference final, the Oshawa Generals took a 3-2 series lead over the North Bay Battalion on Friday night with a 4-1 victory in Oshawa.

Ken Appleby made 36 saves for the Generals while Cole Cassels, Anthony Cirelli and Hunter Smith had a goal and an assist each. Tobias Lindberg assisted on a pair of goals. Matt Mistele also scored for Oshawa.

Ray Huether had the lone goal for North Bay while goaltender Jake Smith stopped 31 shots.

Game six is Sunday afternoon in North Bay.