Greyhounds limp home from poor road effort

For a team that’s been so good on the road this season, it was an uncharacteristic effort.

Carrying a lead through one period wasn’t enough as the Soo Greyhounds dropped a 6-5 Ontario Hockey League decision to the Sudbury Wolves Wednesday night at the Sudbury Community Arena.

In the end, even with a two-goal lead through 20 minutes, there was little to like about the game from a Greyhounds standpoint.

Greyhounds coach John Dean didn’t mince words when describing the Greyhounds effort following the loss.

“Awful hockey game from the drop of the puck,” Dean said.

Dean has had a tendency not to speak to the players following losses and said Wednesday was no different.

“They know how they played,” Dean said when asked if he said anything to the team after the setback.

Overage forward Jack Beck spoke of the Greyhounds cheating in the game despite knowing the style of game the Wolves play.

“We know how Sudbury plays. They’re very offensive,” Beck said. “We think we cheated quite a bit on that, and they were getting behind us and we weren’t sticking to our gameplan. We weren’t doing what Soo Greyhounds hockey is.”

“We were more playing Sudbury hockey and we can’t be cheating like that,” Beck added. “That’s not how we win games. That’s not what makes us special.”

The Greyhounds opened the scoring 2:07 into the game as Travis Hayes potted a loose puck in the left side of the slot after defenceman Caeden Carlisle had his initial shot blocked on the play.

Hayes made it a 2-0 game as he deflected a shot in the slot from Caeden Carlisle past Sudbury goaltender Marcus Vandenberg at 8:55.

Sudbury made it a 2-1 game at 10:17 as he deflected a Donovan McCoy point shot past Greyhounds goaltender Charlie Schenkel to get the home team on the board.

The Greyhounds took a 3-1 lead just 1:40 later when Beck took a shot from the high slot that beat Vandenberg stick side through some traffic in the slot. The goal also ended the night for the Sudbury netminder, who was pulled after the goal by Wolves coach Ken McKenzie.

In the second period, the Wolves cut the Sault lead back down to one goal at 10:37 when McCoy beat Schenkel with a shot from the high slot to make it a 3-2 game.

Just three minutes later, the Wolves tied the game at three as Dalibor Dvorsky beat Shenkel stick side on the power play. The high-scoring import beat Schenkel with a one-timer on a fee from Zacharie Giroux.

The Greyhounds retook the lead just 16 seconds later as Christopher Brown skated into the Sudbury zone and beat Wolves goaltender Jakub Vondras short side from the faceoff circle to make it 4-3 Greyhounds.

Sudbury proceeded to tie the game at four just over two minutes later at Nathan Villeneuve beat Schenkel with a one-timer from the left circle high glove side on the power play on a pass from Kocha Delic.

The Greyhounds would take a 5-4 lead into the dressing room though thanks to a power play goal from Gavin Hayes, who beat Vondras from the right faceoff circle with 1:38 to go in the second period.

Sudbury made it a 5-5 game with just under eight minutes to go in regulation time as David Goyette took a pass from Nick DeAngelis and beat Schenkel high glove side from the left faceoff circle. The goal again came with the Wolves on the man advantage.

Sudbury took the lead 33 seconds later as McCoy beat Schenkel from the top of the left circle on a one-timer after a pass from Giroux. The shot beat the Greyhounds netminder glove side to give the Wolves the lead for good in the game.

In addition to the two-goal night for Travis Hayes, Beck had a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds and Carlisle assisted on a pair of goals.

Schenkel made 28 saves for the Greyhounds in the loss.

McCoy had two goals and an assist to pace the Wolves offensively in the victory.

While Villeneuve had a pair of goals for Sudbury as well, Dvorsky and Goyette chipped in with one of each for the home team.

Delic, DeAngelis, Giroux, and Landon McCallum assisted on a pair of goals each for Sudbury.

Before being pulled, Vandenberg stopped six of the nine Greyhounds shots he faced in the game while Vondras made 23 saves on 25 shots the rest of the way in just over 48 minutes of work.

With the loss, the Greyhounds will take a 32-14-2-1 record into weekend action at home that will see the team host the Niagara IceDogs on Saturday night and the Saginaw Spirit on Sunday afternoon.

The Greyhounds sit second in the OHL’s West Division, two points behind the Spirit. Both teams have 20 games remaining in their regular season schedules.

The Spirit return to action Friday night at home when they host the Owen Sound Attack. The game opens a busy weekend for the Spirit, who will also host the Erie Otters on Saturday night before traveling north to take on the Greyhounds on Sunday afternoon.

The Wolves improve to 28-15-3-2 on the season and move three points ahead of the North Bay Battalion for first in the central division while also holding a game in hand on the Battalion.

Around the league: In other OHL news on Wednesday, the league announced late Wednesday afternoon that Oshawa Generals forward Connor Lockhart has been suspended indefinitely.

The league issued a statement shortly after 4 p.m. saying that the league and the Generals had been made aware of Lockhart being under investigation by the Durham Regional Police Service on Tuesday.

“He (Lockhart) has been indefinitely suspended by the team and the league until the matter is resolved,” the statement said.

The statement also noted that Lockhart had initially been suspended following a league and team Code of Conduct matter.

“Given that the matter is now under police investigation, the team and league will have no further comment at this time,” the statement concluded.