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Greyhounds withstand late push

The Soo Greyhounds held off a late push by the Mississauga Steelheads to win the second game of a three-game weekend road trip on FRiday night.
2016-02-05 Greyhounds at Mississauga
Photo courtesy Soo Greyhounds

​MISSISSAUGA, ON – “I’m happy that we won.”

With those words, Soo Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister summed up his thoughts on the teams 5-3 win over the Mississauga Steelheads in Ontario Hockey League action Friday night in Mississauga.

The team opened up a 3-0 lead and led 3-1 heading into the final period before Mississauga mounted a late-game comeback that fell short thanks to a late empty-net goal with 1:02 left in regulation time.

Bannister would say that things got away from his team shortly after Tim Gettinger’s power play goal early in the second period that made it 3-0.

“We got out of our game plan and for some reason we were throwing pucks away,” Bannister said. “Sometimes blind and sometimes just careless. We were making soft plays instead of making strong plays and it got us into trouble.”

Bannister would also say that Mississauga was “probably the best skating hockey club we’ve played against.”

Greyhounds goaltender Brandon Halverson made 39 saves.

“Halvy was great tonight,” Bannister said. “He was really good in the second (period) and he made some key saves for us. He was really good all around.”

Gabe Guertler had a goal and two assists while Zach Senyshyn and Blake Speers added a goal and an assist.

Hayden Verbeek assisted on a pair of goals.

Tim Gettinger and Boris Katchouk also had goals for the Greyhounds. The goal gives Katchouk five in his past three games.

Bannister would credit the line of Verbeek, Gettinger and Katchouk in the win.

“That line was really good,” Bannister said. “Verbeek was phenomenal. He was really good and may have even been the best player on that line tonight.”

Jason Smith had a goal and an assist for the Steelheads while Owen Tippett and Daniel Muzito-Bagenda also scored.

The goals by Tippett and Muzito-Bagenda came 39 seconds apart in the third period to make the game close.

Jack Flinn made 28 saves for Mississauga.

The win, combined with a loss by Owen Sound, moves the Greyhounds into sixth in the OHL’s Western Conference with 52 points though the Attack hold a game in hand.

The Greyhounds record improves to 23-20-5-1 while Mississauga drops to 25-23-1-3.

The Greyhounds wrap up the weekend on Sunday afternoon against the Oshawa Generals at the General Motors Centre.

Bannister told reporters following the game that there is a “good chance” that sophomore netminder Joseph Raaymakers will get the start in the game.

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OTHER SCORES

In Kingston, Spencer Watson had two goals and three assists as the Kingston Frontenacs beat the Oshawa Generals 5-4. Michael Dal Colle added a pair of goals and an assist against his former team. Jacob Paquette (one goal, one assist), Warren Foegele (two assists) and Stephen Desrocher (two assists) also had multi-point nights for the Frontenacs. Anthony Cirelli had two goals and an assist for the Generals. Lukas Lofquist and Mitchell Vande Sompel also scored for Oshawa while Jalen Smereck assisted on two goals. Generals goaltender Jeremy Brodeur made 47 saves.

In Ottawa, Trent Fox had a goal and two assists as the Hamilton Bulldogs beat the Ottawa 67’s 5-3. Goaltender Connor Hicks made 35 saves for the Bulldogs while Michael Cramarossa and Matt Luff chipped in with a goal and an assist each. Mitchell Mendonca and Niki Petti also scored for Hamilton. Jeremiah Addison, Nevin Guy and Connor Warnholtz scored for Ottawa. Artur Tyanulin and Nathan Todd assisted on two goals each for Ottawa.

In Sarnia, Taylor Raddysh had the shootout winner as the Erie Otters beat the Sarnia Sting 3-2. Erie goaltender Devin Williams made 39 saves and stopped all five Sting shooters in the shootout. Darren Raddysh and Jake Marchment scored in regulation time for the Otters. Troy Lajuenesse and Jakob Chychrun scored for the Sting.

In Flint, Mikkel Aagaard’s goal at 4:09 of overtime lifted the Sudbury Wolves to a 5-4 win over the Flint Firebirds. Zack Bowman made 51 saves for Sudbury against his former team. Alan Lyszczarczyk, Brady Pataki, Michael Pezzetta and Dmitry Sokolov also scored for the Wolves. Ryan Valentini assisted on two Sudbury goals. Connor Sills and Luke Kirwan had a goal and an assist for Flint. Zack Pittman and Ryan Moore also scored for the Firebirds.

In Guelph, Nicolas Sicoly had the shootout winner as the Guelph Storm beat the Saginaw Spirit 4-3. Michael Giugovaz made 37 saves for the Storm before stopping all three Saginaw shooters in the shootout. Marc Stevens, Matthew Hotchkiss and Luke Burghardt scored for Guelph in regulation time. Kris Bennett had a goal and an assist for Saginaw. Marcus Crawford and Mitchell Stephens also scored. Spirit goaltender Evan Cormier stopped 38 shots.

In Kitchener, Adam Mascherin scored a pair of goals as the Kitchener Rangers beat the Niagara IceDogs 4-1. Gustaf Franzen had a goal and two assists for the Rangers. Jeremy Bracco also scored. Miles Liberati assisted on three goals while Ryan MacInnis added a pair of assists. Aaron Haydon had the lone Niagara goal. Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 38 shots for the IceDogs.

In London, Brendan Burke made 26 saves as the London Knights blanked the Owen Sound Attack 5-0. Mitchell Marner had a goal and three assists for the Knights. Christian Dvorak chipped in with two goals and an assist while Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist for London. Aaron Berisha had the other London goal.  Michael McNiven made 24 saves for Owen Sound.


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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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