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Greyhounds remain unbeaten in pre-season

The Soo Greyhounds continued pre-season action in Sudbury on Friday night
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The were some positives but there are still things to work on as the Soo Greyhounds opened a home-and-home series with the Sudbury Wolves on Saturday.

An early lead was the difference as the Greyhounds held on to beat the Wolves 5-4 in Sudbury on Friday night to open the final weekend of exhibition games for both clubs.

“We got up 5-1 and thought it was going to be easy,” said Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister. “(Sudbury) has got some guys that play with some energy and we just got off our game and they caught up. We got into some penalty trouble in the game.

“Overall there were some good things but it was a good lesson for us to learn not to get caught up in the stupidity and just play five-on-five hockey,” Bannister added. “If we get caught up in that stuff we can find ourselves in trouble and let a team into the game that probably shouldn’t have been.”

Bannister credited the play of a number of veterans in the win including Boris Katchouk, Jack Kopacka and sophomore blueliner Anthony DeMeo.

Kopacka had a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds. Bobby MacIntyre scored a pair of goals while Calvin Martin’s goal at 12:11 of the second period held up as the eventual game-winner. Otto Makinen also scored for the Greyhounds.

Joseph Raaymakers got the start for the Greyhounds, making 22 saves before making way for rookie Matthew Villalta midway through the middle frame. Villalta made 17 stops the rest of the way.

“Villalta played very well coming in in relief. He was excellent,” Bannister said.

The Greyhounds coach was also pleased with the play of Raaymakers in his first pre-season start.

“Joe played well,” Bannister said. “Overall he looked good.”

Bannister said the plan is to have Raaymakers start the final exhibition game on Sunday and there’s “a good chance” he will split the game with whomever his backup will be.

Sault Ste. Marie product Darian Pilon scored a pair of goals for the Wolves. David Levin and Ben Garagan had the other Sudbury goals.

Wolves goaltender Zack Bowman stopped 27 shots.

The two teams wrap up the home-and-home series on Sunday afternoon in a 2:07 puck drop at the Essar Centre.

Bannister said the message going into Sunday will be consistency.

“Our best game so far consistency-wise so far was our first game and I’d like to see it trending upwards instead of backwards,” Bannister said. “That will be the message for the players is to get going for 60 minutes and get our game going in the right direction.”

The OHL exhibition schedule saw six other games on Friday night.

In Kingston, Anthony Cirelli’s goal at 13:04 of the third period was the game-winner as the Oshawa Generals beat the Kingston Frontenacs 4-3. Serron Noel, Renars Krastenbergs and Kenny Huether also scored for the Generals. Mitchell Vande Sompel added a pair of assists for Oshawa. Linus Nyman had two goals and an assist for Kingston while Eemeli Rasanen assisted on a pair of goals. Nathan Dunkley had the other Frontenacs goal.

In Flint, Ty Dellandrea and Jalen Smereck had shootout goals as the Flint Firebirds beat the Saginaw Spirit 3-2. Mathieu Henderson and Dane Johnstone scored in regulation time for Flint while Dellandrea assisted on both goals. Saginaw goaltender Brendan Bonello made 35 saves and stopped six of eight shooters in the shootout. Mike Davies and Hayden Hodgson scored for Saginaw. Veteran forward Jesse Barwell assisted on both goals.

In Windsor, Luke Boka had a pair of goals as the Windsor Spitfires doubled up the Sarnia String 4-2. Cristiano DiGiacinto and Julius Nattinen also scored for Windsor. Anthony Salinitri and Brock Perry scored for Sarnia.

In Guelph, a 30-save performance from goaltender Liam Herbst helped the Guelph Storm to a 3-1 win over the Mississauga Steelheads. Nate Schnarr had a goal and an assist while Garrett McFadden and Jake Bricknell also scored for the Storm. Matthew Mancina made 38 saves for Mississauga while Nathan Bastian had the lone Steelheads goal.

In Kitchener, Adam Mascherin had two goals and an assist as the Kitchener Rangers beat the Niagara IceDogs 6-3. Eric Guest also had two goals while Riley Damiani had a goal and two assists for Kitchener. Connor Bunnaman also scored for the Rangers. Pavel Demin, Joshua Dame and Oliver Castleman scored for Niagara.

In Gatineau, Que. Ben Evans’ power play goal at 18:22 of the third period was the game-winner as the Ottawa 67’s beat the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Gatineau Olympiques 3-2. Travis Barron and Drake Rymsha also scored for Ottawa. Vitalii Abramaov had both goals for Gatineau.


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Brad Coccimiglio

About the Author: Brad Coccimiglio

A graduate of Loyalist College’s Sports Journalism program, Brad Coccimiglio’s work has appeared in The Hockey News as well as online at FoxSports.com in addition to regular freelance work with SooToday before joining the team full time.
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