Greyhounds hold lead to beat Spitfires

It was quite a difference in six days for the Soo Greyhounds.

After seeing a 2-0 lead turn into a 5-2 loss on home ice last Friday night against the Windsor Spitfires, the Greyhounds turned a 2-0 lead into a victory on the road on Thursday night at the WFCU Centre in Windsor.

The Greyhounds held on for a 3-1 Ontario Hockey League victory over the Spitfires Thursday night in the first road game of the regular season for the team.

With a 2-0 lead heading into the final period, the Greyhounds outshot the Spitfires 9-6 in the frame and held on to improve to 2-1 on the young OHL season.

“When they made it 2-1, we didn’t panic and stayed with our structure,” said Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister.

“The difference between last Friday and tonight was when we were up, we just continued to do what made us successful for the first two periods,” Bannister said. “Even when they scored the late one on the power play to make it 2-1, we just kept coming. We didn’t panic and we didn’t change the way we played.”

Rookie centre Barrett Hayton’s first OHL goal at 12:56 of the second period held up as the game winner for the Greyhounds. Bobby MacIntyre opened the scoring for the Greyhounds with his third of the year just over six minutes into the contest and David Miller sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 58 seconds remaining.

Miller finished the day with a goal and an assist and now has six points in two games after scoring three goals and an assist on Saturday night in a win over Oshawa.

“Our forwards did a really good job when they didn’t have much to just put pucks behind their defence and with our speed, we were able to win a lot of those foot-races,” Bannister said. “Five-on-five in our zone we were excellent. We closed things off really quick on them. We had good puck pressure and we didn’t really give them a lot.”

In his return to the lineup, goaltender Joseph Raaymakers made 28 saves for the Greyhounds.

“Joseph was real good,” Bannister said. “He made the saves we needed him to.”

Raaymakers said the loss last weekend to the Spitfires at the Essar Centre was on the minds of the team heading into the third period.

“All the guys rallied in the intermission and stepped up,” Raaymakers told TVCogeco.

Windsor netminder Michael DiPietro made 25 saves.

Cole Purboo had the lone goal for the Spitfires, scoring his third of the season on the power play in the third period.

Bannister credited the Greyhounds special teams in Thursday’s win, specifically the penalty kill, which included killing off a minor penalty to Gustav Bouramman with 1:18 eft in regulation time.

“The penalty kill was great towards the end, especially to get that kill at the end,” Bannister said.

The Greyhounds trip continues on Friday night in London against the Knights before wrapping up on Sunday afternoon in Sarnia against the Sting.

News and Notes: Bannister said he had not heard anything further on Blake Speers, Colton White and Zach Senyshyn returning from their respective NHL teams.

Speers and White did not play in New Jersey’s exhibition loss against the New York Rangers while Senyshyn’s Bruins did not play on Thursday night