Fast start leads to good finish for Greyhounds

A quick start and strong finish helped the Soo Greyhounds open the road portion of the 2015-16 regular season on Friday night in Guelph.

Thanks to three goals in the opening period and three more in the third, the Greyhounds skated to an 8-4 win over the Guelph Storm Friday in Ontario Hockey League action.

The Greyhounds opened up a 3-0 lead before the game was 13 minutes old and after the Storm clawed back into the contest with three goals in the second period, the Greyhounds pulled further ahead in the third by turning a 5-3 lead into 8-3 with three goals in the opening four minutes of the final period.

“That’s something that we talked about,” Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister said of the quick start. “(Guelph) really wants to put a lot of pressure on the teams that come in and for us it was more trying to counter that by really using our speed and our skill to back them off and put pressure on them and get a lead.”

Bannister would also credit Guelph for battling back in the second period and forcing the Greyhounds away from their earlier play.

“We got away from our game and we played their game and that’s what they wanted us to do,” Bannister said. “They fought their way back in.”

Boris Katchouk continued his hot start to the season for the Greyhounds with a pair of goals and an assist.

“He showed some speed that people maybe don’t realize (he has),” Bannister said. “He broke in through two defencemen, split them and went to the net with the puck and got rewarded for it.”

Bannister called Katchouk’s limited experience with the Greyhounds last season and his major role with the NOJHL’s Soo Thunderbirds important in his development this season.

“He has a good understanding of what he needs to do now to be successful,” Bannister said. “It will be his job and our job to keep that on him on a daily basis so he can maintain this push.

Tim Gettinger and Blake Speers also had three-point nights for the Greyhounds with three assists each while Gustav Bouramman and Jack Kopacka had a goal and an assist each. Colton White, Zach Senyshyn, Bobby MacIntyre and Gabe Guertler also had goals for the Greyhounds.

Medric Mercier had two assists for the Greyhounds.

Joseph Raaymakers stopped 23 shots for the Greyhounds in his third consecutive start. Raaymakers also picked up an assist in the win.

Brandon Halverson, who missed the opening two games of the regular season last weekend with an injury, served as Raaymakers’ backup Friday night.

Bannister said Halverson seeing action this weekend is “still up in the air.”

“We feel confident enough that if we have to use him, we will,” Bannister said. “But right now we haven’t made any decision on whether he will start (the rest of the weekend).”

Justin Nichols got the start for the Storm but was pulled after giving up three goals on 16 shots in just over 12 minutes of action.

Bradley Van Schubert came in and stopped 30 shots the rest of the way.

James McEwan scored a pair of goals for the Storm while Luke Burghardt and Vladislav Barulin had the other Guelph goals.

The road trip continues for the Greyhounds on Saturday night in Owen Sound against the Attack. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m.

The trip wraps up on Sunday afternoon in Hamilton against the Bulldogs.

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OTHER SCORES

In St. Catharines, the Barrie Colts used three goals in the third period to beat the Niagara IceDogs 4-1. Brandon Prophet, Kevin Labanc and Justin Scott had a goal and an assist each for the Colts while Julius Nattinen assisted on a pair of goals. Cordell James had the other goal for the Colts. Anthony DiFruscia scored the lone goal for the IceDogs.

In North Bay, Zach Bratina’s power play goal at 7:41 of the third period was the eventual game winner as the North Bay Battalion beat the Sarnia Sting 5-4. Bratina had a pair of goals in the game while Brett McKenzie had a goal and two assists. Riley Bruce and Zach Poirier also scored for North Bay. Nikita Korostelev had a goal and an assist for Sarnia while Anthony Salinitri, Patrick White and Alex Black also had goals for the Sting.

In Ottawa, Sam Studnicka scored three times to pace the Ottawa 67’s in a 5-1 victory over the Hamilton Bulldogs. Dante Salituro assisted on four goals for Ottawa while Nevin Guy added a pair of assists. Evan deHaan and Travis Barron also scored for Ottawa while Mitchell Mendonca scored the lone Hamilton goal.

In Sudbury, goals by Gustaf Franzen and Adam Mascherin broke a 2-2 tie and helped the Kitchener Rangers to a 4-2 win over the Sudbury Wolves. Mascherin and Ryan MacInnis had a goal and an assist each for the Rangers while goaltender Dawson Carty stopped 34 shots. Dylan DiPerna also scored for Kitchener. David Levin had a goal and an assist while Pavel Jenys also scored for Sudbury.

In London, Logan Brown scored 17 seconds into overtime to give the Windsor Spitfires a 6-5 victory over the London Knights. Brown finished the night with a goal and two assists while Gabriel Vilardi scored a pair of goals for Windsor. Hayden McCool added a goal and an assist while Cole Carter also had a two-point night with a pair of assists. Jalen Chatfield and Mikhail Sergachev also score for the Spitfires. Overage goaltender Michael Giugovaz stopped 37 shots. Christian Dvorak had a goal and three assists for London while Aaron Berisha scored twice. Mitch Marner (one goal, one assist) and Matthew Tkachuk (two assists) also had multi-point nights for London while Brandon Crawley also scored.

In Mississauga, Spencer Watson scored a pair of goals as the Kingston Frontenacs beat the Mississauga Steelheads 3-1. Lucas Peressini stopped 29 shots while Ryan Cranford also scored for Kingston. Owen Tippett scored for Mississauga while goaltender Jack Flinn stopped 28 shots.

In Oshawa, Jeremy Brodeur stopped all 14 shots he faced as the Oshawa Generals blanked the Peterborough Petes 3-0. Joe Manchurek, Anthony Cirelli and Matt Mistele scored for the Generals. Peterborough goaltender Matthew Mancina stopped 27 shots.