Hounds gun down Battalion

The Soo Greyhounds used their killer instinct and jumped all over a wounded Battalion team on Friday night.

With the Brampton Battalion suffering through a losing streak and icing a depleted lineup, the Greyhounds controlled the play from the opening faceoff and cruised to a 5-1 Ontario Hockey League victory in front of 2,925 fans at Memorial Gardens.

The Battalion entered the game winless in five outings and played without two of their top scorers in Chris Clayton and Ryan Oulahen. Number one netminder Brad Topping is battling the effects of mononucleosis while back-up Kevin Couture is out with an injury forcing third-stringer Daren Machesney into the starting role.

"Our game plan was to get off to a quick start because we know they were winless in five games and they were missing a couple key players," said Greyhounds head coach Marty Abrams. "We wanted to take the travel to our advantage and we jumped on them pretty hard. We deserved to win tonight and the whole team worked hard for it."

Meanwhile, the Greyhounds played without veteran forwards Colt King, who served the final game of a two-game suspension, and Jeff Larsh, who remains sidelined with a shoulder injury.

The Greyhounds jumped ahead 1-0 when Brad Staubitz scored his second goal of the year just 1:18 into the opening period.

Howie Martin scored a power play goal for the Battalion to tie the game at 1-1 before Scott Dobben replied with a man advantage less than two minutes later to give the Hounds a 2-1 lead after one period.

Jeff Doyle added to the lead after completing a pretty passing play from Scott Dobben and Mike Looby while the Hounds were enjoying a two-man advantage 56 seconds into the second period.

Tyler Kennedy and Jordan Smith added goals for the Greyhounds while Jeff Carter added two assists and Doyle added a helper.

"You can be critical of one team but you also give credit to the other team. I don't think Brampton was that flat tonight, it just a matter of we had that extra jump tonight," said Abrams.

"We have played six or seven games this year where nothing stands in our way and tonight was one of those games. We played a complete 60 minutes and it stems from Tuesday night's loss in Sudbury. The guys weren't happy with themselves, I wasn't happy with them and they really worked hard in practise on Wednesday and Thursday to prepare for this game."

Jakub Cech stopped 23 of 24 shots in net for the Greyhounds while the Soo fired 44 shots on Machesney. Staubitz, who was named the game's first star, and Smith anchored a solid Greyhound defense.

"Our entire defense played well," added Abrams. "We are critical of our defense, we are hard on them and we are demanding of them but as a committee of six or seven guys, they get the job done nine times out if ten."

The win improves the Greyhounds record to 16-11-1-1, good for top spot in the OHL's West Division.

The team will conclude the mini two-game homestand on Sunday against the Toronto St. Michael's Majors at 2 p.m. at the Gardens.