Bantam Hounds open NOHA's with win

Despite having not played a meaningful game in roughly a month's time, the Soo Bantam Greyhounds showed no sign of rust as they opened up the AAA Minor Bantam playdowns on Friday afternoon with a win.

Backed by a solid goaltending performance from Justin Hogsden and a strong game from Anthony Colizza, the Bantam Hounds beat the Sudbury Minor Wolves 5-0 this afternoon at Memorial Gardens.

The win give the Hounds a 1-0 series lead heading into game two against the Wolves tonight in the best-of-five Northern Ontario Hockey Association championship series.

After starting somewhat slowly in the first period, the Hounds used some big saves by Hogsden in the game's opening minutes and built on that.

Less than five minutes into the game, Kyle Jean beat Sudbury netminder T.J. Pugliese to open the scoring and give the locals an early lead to work with.

Colizza, who picked up an assist on the opening goal, gave the Hounds a 2-0 lead near the nine minute mark when he scored on the power play after Sudbury's Justin Hogan was handed a minor penalty and game misconduct for a hit from behind moments before.

Despite a number of quality chances, the Hounds nearly came out of the second period with just a 2-0 lead but Tyler Luikkonen scored on the power play with just nine seconds left in the period to give the Hounds a cushion.

In the third period, Jarrett Burton and Zachary Larue scored just over three minutes apart to seal the 5-0 win for the Hounds, who went into a defensive shell after scoring their fifth goal.

"Our goaltender (Hogsden) really started us off," Hounds coach Domenic Deluca said following the game.

"We moved the puck really well. Our team is fun to watch when we move the puck. The last seven minutes we held back. It's tough to score on us when we get up by five goals. We haven't given up three or more too often. When we got up five goals we said (to the players) 'let them know it's going to be tough.'"

Deluca was pleased with the fact that he was also able to get strong play from all three lines in the game and not just one or two.

"All three lines played well," Deluca said. "Colizza's line (with Mike Rivard and Jean on the wings) got us started and the other two lines fed off of that."

Even with a month off and not having played a meaningful game in that time, Deluca said the slow start is more attributed to the fact that his team is known to get off to slow starts than the time off.

"We've generally been known as a slow starting team and then taking off," Deluca said.

The Hounds don't have much time to savour the victory though as the two teams are back at it again tonight at 8 p.m. at Memorial Gardens.

Game three of the series is set for Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m., also at the Gardens. Game four, if necessary, will be at 8 p.m. at the Rankin arena. Game five, if necessary, will be held at the John Rhodes Community Centre on Sunday morning at 10 a.m.