Greyhounds overcome late surge, beat Wolves

They always seem to find a way, especially on the road.

After opening up a 4-1 lead, the Soo Greyhounds needed overtime to beat the Sudbury Wolves 5-4 at the Sudbury Community Arena in Ontario Hockey League action on Wednesday night.

Sudbury forced overtime with three goals in a four-minute stretch in the final minutes of the third period.

“When it was 4-1, their goaltender (Jake McGrath) made three or four outstanding saves and then they went down, our one defenceman made a little mistake and it ended up in the back of our net,” said Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister.

Despite the final five minutes of regulation time, Bannister said there were positives in the contest.

“You take away those last five minutes and we played a pretty good hockey game,” Bannister said. “It was a good lesson for us to learn.”

Bannister also said that he “never felt any urgency to call a timeout” when the Wolves battled back in the late stages of the contest. He added that calling a timeout after the tying goal was to check on the players.

“There was never any panic on the bench,” Bannister said. “We just wanted to give our guys a little breather, get the guys out that we wanted to and get back to work.”

For Miller, the overtime winner “felt pretty good” adding that he wasn’t sure he had the goal as Tim Gettinger was also in traffic on the play in front of the Sudbury goal.

With his team trailing 1-0, Gettinger got the Greyhounds on the board with his 20^th goal of the season at 7:45 of the middle frame. Captain Blake Speers then broke the tie at 16:27 before Boris Katchouk also got his 20^th of the season in the final minute of the period.

Jack Kopacka tacked on a shorthanded goal 90 seconds into the third period to add some insurance onto the Greyhounds lead.

Katchouk and Speers finished the night with a goal and an assist each.

“We all know we’re a good team and it doesn’t really matter if they erase the deficit, we know we still have a game to win,” Speer said. “We threw out the third period going into overtime and moved forward.”

The Greyhounds finished the night with a pair of shorthanded goals and killed off all four Sudbury power plays.

“We continue to create offence without giving up anything,” Bannister said of the penalty kill.

Veteran Joseph Raaymakers made 37 saves for the Greyhounds, who improve to 30-9-2-0 with the win, which includes a 20-4-0-0 mark on the road.

“He had to make some big saves early on and you can’t fault him on any of the goals,” Bannister said.

Goaltender Jake McGrath stopped 29 shots for the Wolves.

“He had to make some really outstanding saves,” Bannister said.

Dmitry Sokolov had two goals and an assist for Sudbury. Ryan Valentini added a goal and an assist while David Levin assisted on two goals. Michael Pezzetta also scored.

Sudbury falls to 17-19-5-0 with the loss.

With illness still affecting the Greyhounds, General Manager Kyle Raftis stepped in behind the bench to fill in for Ryan Ward, who stayed back in Sault Ste. Marie due to the flu.

The Greyhounds return to action with a pair of home games at the Essar Centre on the weekend. On Friday night, the team hosts Mississauga in a 7:07 p.m. start before facing the London Knights in a 2:07 p.m. start on Sunday afternoon.

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OTHER SCORES

In Owen Sound, Jonah Gadjovich had three goals and an assist as the Owen Sound Attack beat the Guelph Storm 8-2. Zachary Roberts and Kevin Hancock had a goal and two assists each for Owen Sound. Sean Durzi assisted on three goals. Santino Centorame and Aidan Dudas added a pair of assists each. Petrus Palmu, Markus Phillips and Matthew Struthers also scored for the Attack. Nick Deakin-Poot and Isaac Ratcliffe scored for Guelph.

In Sarnia, three unanswered goals lifted the Sarnia Sting to a 4-2 win over the Hamilton Bulldogs. Kevin Spinozzi had a goal and an assist for the Sting. Jordan Kyrou, Jaden Lindo and Ryan MacGregor also scored. Hamilton goaltender Kaden Fulcher made 37 saves. Matthew Strome had both goals for Hamilton.

The OHL schedule also saw a pair of games on Tuesday night, with four Western Conference teams in action.

In Erie, Taylor Raddysh had a goal and three assists as the Erie Otters beat the Kitchener Rangers 6-3. Dylan Strome chipped in with a goal and two assists while Alex DeBrincat scored a pair of goals. Kyle Maksimovich and Warren Foegele also scored. Darby Llewellyn, Connor Bunnaman and Joseph Garreffa scored for the Rangers. Adam Mascherin assisted on a pair of Rangers goals.

In Saginaw, the Flint Firebirds scored five times in each of the first two periods en route to an 11-2 win over the Saginaw Spirit. Kole Sherwood had five goals and two assists while Ryan Moore added a goal and four assists for the Firebirds, Maurizio Colella had a goal and two assists while Jake Durham and Jalen Smereck had a goal and an assist each. Everett Clark and Mathieu Henderson also scored. Alex Peters assisted on three goals. Nicholas Caamano and C.J. Clarke assisted on a pair of goals. Mike Davies and Brady Gilmour scored for Saginaw.