Another overtime, another victory for the Greyhounds

There’s a confidence among the Soo Greyhounds players regardless of what the scoreboard says in any game.

Despite a slow start, the Greyhounds opened a short two-game road trip Thursday night with a 4-3 overtime win at the WFCU Centre against the Windsor Spitfires in Ontario Hockey League action.

“We know we’re never out of games,” Greyhounds forward Tim Gettinger said as the Greyhounds trailed twice in the contest before picking up the victory.

Gettinger broke in on a 2-on-1 with Mac Hollowell and beat Windsor goaltender Michael DiPietro high blocker side 1:58 into the extra frame to pick up the Greyhounds third consecutive overtime victory.

“(Hayden) Verbeek and Hollowell were battling in the corner and I was in the middle (of the ice), the puck squirted loose, Mac gave it to me and we went in on the two-on-one,” Gettinger said.

“I was looking to pass first but waited and then I had to shoot,” Gettinger also said.

Gettinger called the feeling of scoring the overtime winner “awesome” before adding that the game was “a good team victory for us.”

Gettinger finished the day with a goal and an assist while Boris Katchouk, who scored a pair of overtime winners last weekend on the road, picked up a pair of goals.

Katchouk was critical of the Greyhounds play in the opening 40 minutes.

“I don’t think we played well,” Katchouk said. “The first two periods weren’t Hounds hockey. We turned the puck over a lot and weren’t in the best positions.”

Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister echoed Katchouk’s comments, saying he felt the Greyhounds got better as the game progressed.

“We didn’t spend much time in our defensive zone period but we spent a lot more time in the offensive zone (in the second half of the game), and in turn the shot count went up and we were managing to create some pretty good scoring chances,” Bannister said.

Matthew Villalta got the start for the Greyhounds and made 20 saves.

Bannister said a decision had not been made on whether Villalta would start Friday’s trip finale in London against the Knights

For Hollowell, the game marked his return to the lineup after an injury during the summer kept him out of game action to start the season. The veteran blueliner had a pair of assists in his return.

“He certainly gave us some quality minutes and was able to take some minutes off other guys hands,” Bannister said. “It was a good start for him and it’s nice to have him back in the lineup.”

Windsor goaltender Michael DiPietro made 34 saves in the game.

“He competes hard,” Bannister said of the Spitfires netminder. “He’s going to win them a bunch of hockey games this year, there’s no doubt about that.”

Aaron Luchuk scored a pair of goals for the Spitfires. Mathew MacDougal had the other goal for Windsor.

In other games around the OHL on Thursday night, Michael Pezzetta had a goal and an assist as the Sudbury Wolves picked up a 5-2 road victory over the Niagara IceDogs in St. Catharines.

In Peterborough, Jonathan Ang and Logan DeNoble had a goal and an assist each as the Peterborough Petes beat the Flint Firebirds 3-1. Dylan Wells made 46 saves for the Petes while his Flint counterpart, Garrett Forrest made 47.

In Barrie, Andrei Svechnikov scored all three goals for the Barrie Colts in a 3-1 win over the North Bay Battalion. Colts goaltender Leo Lazarev made 34 saves.