Hounds battle Plymouth to a draw

The Soo Greyhounds continued to make strides in the standings after gaining a tie with the Plymouth Whalers on Friday night.

Backed by stellar goaltending at each end of the ice, the Greyhounds played the Whalers to a 1-1 draw in front of 3,135 fans at Memorial Gardens.

The tie moves the Greyhounds record to 5-8-3 for 13 points and to 3-2-2 under head coach Craig Hartsburg.

"Every point we get is positive for our team," said Hartsburg. "We put ourselves in a hole early in the year and every point is important."

The Greyhounds, who didn't record their first shot until the 13:35 mark of the opening period, opened the scoring at 17:11 on the power play as Reg Thomas banged in his own rebound past Whalers goaltender Ryan Nie for his fourth of the season.

Plymouth evened the score on the power play in the second period when John Mitchell rang a long wrist shot off the post and behind Hounds goaltender Jakub Cech.

After a scoreless third period, both teams entertained the Memorial Gardens faithful with end-to-end action during the four-on-four overtime period.

"We played better down the stretch and it seems to be the same story with this team that we get better as the game goes on. Maybe we are a little unsure of ourselves and we don't start the game the right way. If we could start games like we finish them, we would be in a lot better shape," said Hartsburg.

Cech, the game's first star, kicked aside 29 of 30 shots while Nie stopped 24 of 25 shots.

The Greyhounds conclude their three-game home stand on Sunday against the Peterborough Petes at 7 p.m. at Memorial Gardens.

*** BURGESS TO SING NATIONAL ANTHEM:

Canadian singer Michael Burgess will be on hand for Sunday night's game against Peterborough to sing the national anthem and drop the puck for a ceremonial face-off.

Burgess, in town to perform at the Algoma Fall Festival, is well known for his performance of the national anthems at sporting events including Toronto Maple Leafs games, the World Figure Skating Championships, the World Basketball Championship, the Grey Cup, the Queen's Plate, the Molson Indy and the duMaurier Open Tennis Championship.

In 2002, Burgess was presented with the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal as a distinguished Canadian from the Government of Canada.