Hounds enjoy offensive explosion

Despite getting off to a slow start, the Soo Greyhounds worked their game plan to perfection in an 8-6 victory over the London Knights on Sunday afternoon at Memorial Gardens.

In what was likely one of the most entertaining Ontario Hockey League games of the season for the 2,544 Greyhound fans in attendance, the Hounds scored five even strength goals along with three short handed markers to combat the fact that five of London's six goals in the game came on the man advantage.

The Knights looked as though they were going to take control of the game early with power play goals by Dennis Wideman at 1:53 and Corey Perry at 2:53.

But after a goaltending change where Kevin Druce came in to relieve Jakub Cech who had given up goals on the first two shots he faced, the Hounds battled back.

A goal by Jordan Smith on a point shot that rang off the crossbar and in got the Hounds back to within a goal before Jeff Doyle tied the game by deflecting a point shot by Mike Looby past London goaltender Ryan MacDonald at 13:45.

The Hounds took over the game in the second period.

After Rob Schremp scored to give the Knights a 3-2 lead, Scott Dobben, named the game's first star, converted on a feed from Jeff Doyle to get the game back on even terms again and chased MacDonald from the game in favour of Gerald Coleman.

Dylan Hunter scored the Knights fourth power play goal of the day at 9:03, before an interesting goal by Brett Connolly tied the game again.

With Wideman set up behind the Knights goal and Scott Sheppard and Danny Syvret set up at the hash marks along the boards, Wideman, in attempt to move out of the London end, would make a pass to Sheppard or Syvret. Without an option to move the puck up ice, they would in turn move the puck back to Wideman behind the net.

With the fans getting restless, an errant pass back to Wideman allowed Jacob King, who was waiting in front of the London goal to move in on Wideman. Wideman then made an errant pass up the boards which Connolly picked off and cut in front of the net to beat Coleman.

The goal seemed to spark the Hounds as they scored their first short handed goal of the day at 14:38 as Dobben and Jeff Carter moved in on a 2-on-1 break with Dobben, electing to shoot, beating Coleman high to the glove side.

Just under two minutes later, Doyle scored his second goal of the day, to go along with his assist on Dobben's first goal.

The Hounds opened the third period scoring 41 second in as Jeff Carter scored short handed to give the Hounds a 7-4 lead.

The Knights cut the lead down to two goals when Schremp scored his second power play goal of the day at 2:11. The Knights finished the day 5-for-9 on the power play.

Dave Bolland cut the Hounds lead to 7-6 at 15:03 but a late short handed goal by Carter into an empty net sealed the win for the Hounds.

Hounds coach Marty Abrams was pleased with his team's ability to stick with the Knights while playing at even strength.

"It was a high energy game," Abrams said. "There was lots of offense, but lots of mistakes both ways. When we played five-on-five, we played well. We did our job as well as we could. We could have folded when we were down 2-0 but we really battled."

Abrams went on to say that any time a team is playing against a team like London, who has so much offense, a strong power play is to be expected but when it came to even strength hockey, he was happy with the efforts of his team.

Both London and the Hounds will renew their rivalry as the next game for both clubs is Thursday night at the John Labatt Centre in London.

In other OHL action on Sunday, the Brampton Battalion scored four times in the third period to beat the Barrie Colts 5-2. Peter Tsimikalis scored twice and setup two others as Ottawa hammered Belleville 6-2.

Dan Sisca scored once and added an assist as Sarnia doubled Windsor 4-2. Andre Benoit scored twice and added two assists as Kitchener edged Erie 5-4, Patrick Ehelechner stopped 37 shots as Sudbury beat Guelph 3-1 while Stefan Ruzicka scored twice and Patrick Jarrett once to help Owen Sound to a 6-3 win over Oshawa.