HOCKEY ROUNDUP: Hounds, Stars both lose

The Soo Greyhounds have become the first Ontario Hockey League team to be eliminated from this year's playoffs, while the Soo North Stars have been defeated in the deciding game for the Great North Midget Hockey League championship. Before a gathering of only 1,900 fans at Memorial Gardens on Wednesday, the Hounds fell 4-2 to the Kitchener Rangers. The win for Kitchener gave it the opening round, best-of-seven series in four straight games. An empty-net goal by Marcus Smith sealed the win for Kitchener, which fired 44 shots at Hounds' goalie Adam Munro. Gregory Campbell, Evan McGrath and former Soo Thunderbird Nathan O'Nabigon also scored for the Rangers. Petr Taticek and Corey LeClair scored for the Hounds, who dropped their last seven games of the season. Meanwhile, in Sudbury on Wednesday, the North Stars lost 4-3 to the Sudbury Lockerby Nickel Capitals in the fifth-and-deciding game for the Great North title. Andrew Harrison, Nick Tombari and Cory Sewell scored for the Soo.