Hounds down Spirit for second straight win

The Soo Greyhounds responded with another crucial win on New Year's Eve to vault themselves back into the playoff race.

With the Greyhounds enduring a month long offensive struggle, the team found themselves drop from a top seed in the conference into a battle to maintain position in the playoff hunt.

Entering a home-and-home series with the lowly Saginaw Spirit, the Greyhounds responded with back-to-back victories, including a 5-2 win over the Spirit on Wednesday night in Ontario Hockey League action in Saginaw, to regain their winning ways.

Much like Tuesday's series opener in the Sault, which the Hounds won 4-2, the Greyhounds received stellar performances from Scott Dobben and rookie Andrew Desjardins to pave the way to victory on Wednesday.

Dobben, who scored a pair of markers on Tuesday, led the team with two goals while Desjardins, who scored his first two OHL goals the night before, added his third goal of the season and an assist.

Colt King opened the scoring for the Greyhounds in the first period on the power play before the team took control of the game in the second period with three goals.

Jeff Doyle scored early in the period on the power play before Desjardins and Dobben gave the Greyhounds a commanding 4-0 lead after 40 minutes.

Nick Lees and Marc-Andre Rizk scored for the Spirit in the third period while Dobben scored his second of the night and 20th of the season.

Jakub Cech made his second straight start in net for the Greyhounds and kicked aside 27 of the 29 shots he faced. The Greyhounds fired 43 shots at Spirit goaltender Mike Brown.

The Greyhounds saw the return of defenseman Matt Manias, who has been bothered by a knee injury, to the lineup on Wednesday while defenseman Brad Staubitz, who is nursing a shoulder injury, remained sidelined.

The win improves the Greyhounds record to 19-20-1-1 for 40 points and a third place standing in the OHL's west division.

The Hounds vaulted three points ahead of Windsor, two behind Plymouth and three behind Sarnia in the division although all three teams hold games in hand on the locals. The team sits seventh overall in the western conference.

The team returns to action on Friday as the Kitchener Rangers visit the Greyhounds for a 7:30 p.m. start at Memorial Gardens. Windsor visits Sunday at 2 p.m.

In other OHL action on Wednesday, Sault native Blair Jarrett scored the game winner as Mississauga defeated Brampton 5-4. Corey Perry scored twice and setup another as London rolled past Sarnia 4-1 while B.J. Crombeen scored a goal and an assist to lead Barrie past Erie 3-1.

*** WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:

Soo Greyhounds captain Jeff Carter scored two goals to lift Team Canada to a 5-2 victory over the Czech Republic at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Finland on Wednesday. Carter has now recorded five points in four games.

After winning the B division with a perfect 4-0 record, the Canadians have received a bye into Saturday's semi-finals along with the undefeated Americans from the A group.

Meanwhile, Greyhounds rookie centre Chris Lawrence added an assist in Team Ontario's 6-5 win over Team West on Wednesday at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Newfoundland.