Hounds drop final season opener at Gardens (7 photos added)

It wasn't the way the Soo Greyhounds had hoped to open up the 2005-06 Ontario Hockey League season and it certainly wasn't the way the Greyhounds had hoped to open their final season playing at Memorial Gardens.

Friday night marked the Greyhound final home opener at the storied building and the Ottawa 67's crashed their party coming away with a 4-3 victory in the first game of the season for both clubs.

The 67's opened up an early lead in the first period, thanks to a pair of quick goals less than seven minutes in.

Former Greyhound David Jarram picked up his first OHL goal 2:58 in after a point shot from Thomas Kiriakou deflected off the 18-year-old and past Hounds netminder Kyle Gajewski.

Just over three minutes later Derek Joslin gave the 67's a 2-0 lead when he fired a shot, through a crowd, that found its way to the back of the Hounds goal at 6:17.

In the second period, the Hounds found themselves victim to another unfortunate bounce as a shot from Sault native Chris Hulit deflected off Julian Talbot in the slot and found its was past Gajewski for a 3-0 Ottawa lead.

The goal was one of just two power play goals on the night – one to each team – despite the rulebook crackdown which has seen penalty totals skyrocket.

After an early goal by Logan Couture just two minutes into the third period gave Ottawa a 4-0 advantage, the Greyhounds began to battle back. Overage winger Ryan Kitchen got the Greyhounds on the board at 3:32 before Tyler Kennedy cut the lead to 4-2 with a goal at 6:47.

Ryan McInerney then gave the crowd of just over 3,600 even more to get excited about when he banged home a power play goal at 18:57, but it was too little, too late as the Greyhounds could not find the back of the Ottawa goal again.

Despite outshooting the 67's 40-26 and facing a solid netmindding performance from Danny Battochio, who was named the game's first star, in the 67's goal, Hounds coach Craig Hartsburg was not totally pleased with his team's performance.

"In the third period, the simplist thing was we started to work," Hartsburg said. "We started to play together and win more competitive battles. In the first two periods we tried to display a one-on-one game and nobody helped the guy with the puck.

"Their goaltender (Battochio) was outstanding," Hartsburg continued. "We can't look at it and say 'We were close.' That's unacceptable. We have to look at why we were down 4-0 and learn from that rather than learn that we can come back.

"Their goaltending was the difference for two periods," Hartsburg said, "but we need to win more battles, we need better puck support and play together rather than just one-on-one."

The Hounds played the game without the services of defenceman Brad Good who was out of the lineup while nursing a shoulder injury.

According to Hartsburg, the injury is not considered serious, but the team will likely keep him out of Sunday night's game against Erie as more of a precaution than anything else.

Game two of their short two-game homestand is Sunday night's contest with Erie beginning at 7 p.m. Following the game, the Hounds will take their first road trip of the season to Windsor, Plymouth and London next weekend.