Greyhounds rebound for shootout win on road

Much like last season, there’s something about playing on the road for the Soo Greyhounds.

After dropping a pair of games in the familiar confines of the Essar Centre over the weekend, the Greyhounds opened up a three-game Ontario Hockey League road trip on Thursday night with a 5-4 shootout win over the Peterborough Petes.

Shootout goals by Gustav Bouramman and Otto Makinen were the difference for the Greyhounds with Makinen scoring after netminder Joseph Raaymakers stopped Logan DeNoble on what would ultimately be the Petes final shot. Makinen’s goal sealed the win for the Greyhounds after he got in tight and tucked the puck past Petes netminder Dylan Wells.

“From (the bench) it looked like he ran out of all kinds of room,” Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister said of Makinen’s move on in the shootout. “He sucked the goalie over and tucked the puck in on his backhand. It was an impressive move, there’s no question about that.”

Raaymakers made 41 saves for the Greyhounds and stopped four of five Petes shooters in the shootout.

Although he felt that Raaymakers would like at least two of Peterborough’s goals back, Bannister credited the veteran with making some key saves, especially late in the game.

“Overall it was probably an average game but he made some saves that he probably shouldn’t have made,” Bannister said. “He made some really big saves late.”

Bannister would also say the plan is to start rookie netminder Matthew Villalta on Friday night in his hometown of Kingston.

Bannister was pleased with the Greyhounds after the weekend losses.

“It was a good bounce-back game for us,” Bannister said. “We showed a lot of character in fighting our way back into the game.

“It was good for our guys to get rewarded,” Bannister added. “We did a lot of good things. We did a lot of things that we didn’t do well last weekend and it paid dividends and was why we won.”

Calvin Martin and Liam Hawel had a goal and an assist each in regulation time for the Greyhounds. Jack Kopacka and Boris Katchouk also scored.

Wells made 45 saves for the Petes while Jonathan Ang had a goal and an assist. Logan DeNoble, Matyas Svoboda and Kyle Jenkins had the other Peterborough goals.

The game nearly didn’t make it to the shootout after both teams had chances in the final seconds of overtime to end the contest.

With a 5-3-0-0 record, which includes four wins on the road, the Greyhounds move on to face the Frontenacs in Kingston on Friday night before the weekend road trip wraps up on Sunday afternoon in Ottawa against the 67’s.

Notes: Overage defenceman Medric Mercier was a healthy scratch in the game and Bannister said he would be back in the lineup on Friday night.

“We know he’s better and we expect him to be better,” Bannister said of the decision. “It was a message that he to be sent to him and even some of the other guys in our lineup that we expect more from out veteran players.”

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OTHER SCORES

In Barrie, Michael McNiven made 32 saves as the Owen Sound Attack blanked the Barrie Colts 5-0. Maksim Sushko scored a pair of goals for the Attack while Nick Suzuki chipped in with a goal and an assist. Zachary Roberts and Petrus Palmu also scored for Owen Sound. Ethan Szypula assisted on a pair of goals. David Ovsjannikov made 20 saves on 23 shots in two periods of work for the Colts. Christian Propp came in and stopped 10 of 12 shots he faced in the third period.

In St. Catharines, Jordan Kyrou’s goal at 12:51 of the third period was the game-winner as the Sarnia Sting beat the Niagara IceDogs 5-4. Kyrou had a goal and three assists for the Sarnia while Nikita Korostelev. Franco Sproviero, Troy Lajeunesse and Jeff King also scored. Akil Thomas and Graham Knott had a goal and an assist each for Niagara. Oliver Castleman and Ryan Mantha also scored for the IceDogs.

In North Bay, Matt Luff had a goal and two assists as the Hamilton Bulldogs beat the North Bay Battalion 6-4. Niki Petti added a goal and an assist while Matthew Strome, Connor Roberts, Marian Studenic and MacKenzie Entwistle also scored for Hamilton. Brett McKenzie had a goal and two assists for North Bay. Cam Dineen added a pair of goals. Jacob Ball had the other goal for the Battalion.

In Windsor. Logan Brown scored three times as the Windsor Spitfires beat the Flint Firebirds 7-2. Jalen Chatfield and Aaron Luchuk added a goal and two assists each for Windsor. Jeremiah Addison (one goal, one assists), Gabriel Vilardi (two assists) and Julius Nattinen (two assists) also had multi-point nights for the Spitfires. Luke Boka also scored for Windsor. Ryan Moore had a goal and an assist while Kole Sherwood also scored for Flint.