Greyhounds go on offensive against Wolves

Getting pucks to the net cured what has ailed the Soo Greyhounds of late on Wednesday night.

A 54-shot barrage helped the Greyhounds to a 7-2 Ontario Hockey League victory over the Sudbury Wolves at the Essar Centre.

After a scoreless opening period, the Greyhounds fired 25 shots on Sudbury netminder Jake McGrath and took a 5-0 lead en route to the victory.

“We were able to capitalize on the chances that we had,” said Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister. “We put a lot of pressure on their defence.”

“A lot of the shots were quality shots too, they weren’t from the perimeter,” Bannister also said. “We were patient with the puck. Our forwards did a real good job when they beat guys down low, we challenge their defencemen’s feet and beat them down low and got pucks to the net, and we made sure we had numbers going to the net.”

Zach Senyshyn and Blake Speers paced the Greyhounds with a pair of goals each.

“We’ve been going through a little bit of a rough spot so it’s a step in the right direction,” Senyshyn said of the offensive outburst.

“We were funnelling a lot more pucks (to the net) tonight and good things were happening,” Senyshyn said.

Otto Makinen, who earned the praise of Bannister following the game, chipped in with a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds. Jack Kopacka also had a goal and an assist while Bobby MacIntyre had the other goal for the Greyhounds. Conor Timmins assisted on three goals while Morgan Frost added a pair of helpers in the win.

“We did a lot of good things,” Bannister said. “We had to work for most of our goals. We defended well. Early on, the opportunities (Sudbury) got were careless turnovers but as the game went on we got a lot better.”

Rookie netminder Matthew Villalta made 23 saves for the Greyhounds.

“Matty made some good saves early on in the game when we made a couple of poor decisions with the puck,” Bannister said.

Bannister said he expects to split the goaltending duties on the weekend with Joseph Raaymakers starting Friday night and going back to Villalta on Saturday.

Matsos was pleased with the Wolves start in the contest, calling the second period the difference.

“We had a really strong first period,” said Sudbury Coach David Matsos. “We hung around against a good team. They stayed on their game and we got off ours in the second. You can’t take a minute off against (the Greyhounds).”

MacAuley Carson and Chandler Yackimowicz scored for the Wolves.

McGrath finished the night stopping 36 of 40 shots in 40 minutes of work. MacKenzie Savard came in and stopped 11 shots in the final period.

Matsos emphasized how pleased he was with McGrath in the game.

“Sometimes that goaltending change will spark your group,” Matsos said. “Jake McGrath played a great game for us.”

Defenceman Mac Hollowell remained out of the lineup due to injury for the Greyhounds.

Bannister said Hollowell is expected to participate in contact drills in Thursday with a chance he could get into the lineup on the weekend.

The Greyhounds improve to 38-14-2-1 and take a five-point lead in the OHL’s West Division over the Windsor Spitfires, who sat idle on Wednesday before returning to action on Thursday. The team now sits in a tie with the London Knights in the Western Conference standings after the Knights lost in Erie on Wednesday.

Meanwhile the Wolves fall to 22-25-6-0.

The Greyhounds return to action on Friday night against the Kitchener Rangers. Puck drop at the Essar Centre is set for 7:07 p.m.

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OTHER SCORES

In Mississauga, Linus Nyman and Nathan Billitier had shootout goals as the Kingston Frontenacs beat the Mississauga Steelheads 2-1. Jeremy Helvig made 28 saves and stopped two of three Mississauga shooters in the shootout. Jason Robertson had the lone Kingston goal in regulation time. Jacob Cascagnette scored for Mississauga.

In Erie, Dylan Strome had two goals and an assist while Alex DeBrincat chipped in with a goal and two assists as the Erie Otters beat the London Knights 5-1. Darren Raddysh added a goal and an assist for Erie. Warren Foegele also scored for Erie. Taylor Raddysh assisted on a pair of goals for Erie. Evan Bouchard had the lone goal for London.

In Owen Sound, Michael McNiven made 16 saves as the Owen Sound Attack blanked the Flint Firebirds 4-0. Cordell James scored a pair of goals for Owen Sound while Petrus Palmu had a goal and two assists. Nick Pryce had the other Owen Sound goal. Connor Hicks made 31 saves for Flint.

In Sarnia, Adam Ruzicka had a pair of goals as the Sarnia Sting beat the Guelph Storm 6-2. Jordan Ernst added a goal and an assist for the Sting. Nick Grima, Louis Latta and Franco Sproviero also scored for Sarnia. Anthony Salinitri and Jeff King picked up a pair of assists each for the Sting. Dmitri Samorukov and Givani Smith scored for Guelph. Liam Herbst made 30 saves on 33 shots after entering the game in relief of Anthony Popovich, who surrendered three goals on 15 shots in the opening period for Guelph.