Greyhounds battle back for 'huge' win (video)

They hadn’t won a game this season when trailing after two periods and their opponent hadn’t lost when leading through 40 minutes.

That changed on Friday night as the Soo Greyhounds scored five times in the final 11 minutes of the third period en route to a 6-3 win over the Kitchener Rangers at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

The Greyhounds win also ended Kitchener’s 10-game winning streak in the process.

“It’s a huge win to knock off the hottest team in the league,” said goaltender Bailey Brkin.

“I’m really happy for the guys,” said Greyhounds coach John Dean. “It’s been such a roller coaster of a year and we’re only halfway through but for us to battle back to get a game above .500, and playing against a pretty good hockey club and be down 3-1, the hockey gods were there tonight.”

“How hard these guys have worked over the last five or six weeks, sometimes the hockey gods reward you,” Dean added.

Veteran defenceman Jacob LeGuerrier, who had a pair of goals in the win, said the game felt “pretty much like playoffs.”

A goal by Billy Constantinou to pull the Greyhounds to within one with 11:51 to go sparked a stretch of five unanswered goals for the team in the win.

LeGuerrier then gave the Greyhounds the lead for good just under two minutes later.

“When you’re down 3-1, it could have been really easy to fold the tent,” Dean said. “Everyone’s family was waiting to take them home for Christmas to see Santa Claus. That could have been a really easy time for our guys to fold it up.

“The way we won that game is just another way that they’ve impressed me,” Dean added. “Now we know we can beat any team in any scenario and that’s confidence for the guys.”

Brkin made 36 saves for the Greyhounds, including 17 in the third period.

“That’s a pretty special game that Bailey played,” Dean said. “We tried to keep things to the perimeter at the start and we did a good job but as the game went on, they started to wear us down and we started giving up some pretty good chances. Bailey just battled between the pipes there and gave us a chance to win.”

Dean also spoke of what the comeback says about the Greyhounds.

“We’re resilient,” Dean said. “We care about each other. We’re capable of beating really good teams. A lot of good things can be said about that game. We got outshot by 10 pucks, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but we found a way to win.”

Tye Kartye had a goal and two assists for the Greyhounds while Tanner Dickinson also had a multi-point night with a pair of helpers.

Rory Kerins and Drew Wawrow had the other Sault goals.

Axel Bergkvist, Isaac Langdon, and Justin MacPherson scored for the Rangers.

Goaltender Jacob Ingham stopped 25 shots.

Kartye’s goal midway through the second period ended Ingham’s shutout streak at over 120 minutes.

The Greyhounds will head into the Christmas break with a 7-2-1-0 record in their last 10 games and a 17-16-2-0 record overall.

With 36 points, the team sits in a tie for sixth in the OHL’s Western Conference with the Flint Firebirds, who currently hold the tiebreaker with one more win.

The Rangers sit two points ahead of the Firebirds and Greyhounds with a 17-11-2-2 record.

The entire 10-team Western Conference is separated by 10 points.

The Saginaw Spirit, Guelph Storm, and Windsor Spitfires are tied atop the conference with 42 points each while the Sarnia Sting sit in 10th with 32

In other action around the OHL on Friday night, in Mississauga, Thomas Harley had two goals and two assists as the Mississauga Steelheads beat the Barrie Colts 8-2. Richard Whittaker and Ty Collins had a goal and two assists each for Mississauga.

In Sarnia, Daniel D’Amico scored 31 seconds into overtime to give the Windsor Spitfires a 5-4 win over the Sarnia Sting. Jacob Perreault had two goals and an assist for Sarnia.

In Sudbury, Jonathan Gruden had the lone goal of the game as the London Knights beat the Sudbury Wolves 1-0. London goaltender Brett Brochu stopped 29 shots for the shutout.

In Oshawa, Jack Beck scored at 3:16 of overtime to give the Ottawa 67’s a 5-4 win over the Oshawa Generals. Beck had a pair of goals in the win. Joseph Garreffa assisted on three Ottawa goals. Noel Hoefenmayer had two goals and an assist for Ottawa,