Hounds harpoon Whalers

Music could be heard blaring from the Soo Greyhounds dressing room last night and with good reason. Thanks to a power play influx, the Greyhounds found themselves on the winning side in a matchup with the West Division leading Plymouth Whalers.

The Greyhounds power play came alive against the Whalers as the locals pumped three power play goals past Whalers goaltender Ryan Nie en route to a 4-2 home ice victory.

Jared Boll got the Whalers on the board at 8:49 of the opening period when he converted a power play chance past Kyle Gajewski in the Hounds goal. The Hounds managed to battle back with a power play goal of their own when Garden River resident Trevor Solomon scored his first goal of the season, which also was his first goal as a Greyhound at 13:13.

After the two teams played to a scoreless second period, the Whalers took a 2-1 lead near the midway point of the third period when John Vigilante, the Whalers captain, scored on a setup by Evan Brophey, who was playing just his second game with the Whalers since being acquired from the Belleville Bulls earlier in the week.

At 11:51, with the Greyhounds enjoying a two-man advantage, Brett Halstead converted for his fourth goal of the season to tie things up at two. Shortly after, with the Greyhounds again on the power play, Chris Lawrence scored his third goal of the season to give the Hounds a 3-2 lead. Cody Thornton sealed the victory with 28 second remaining when he took a nice feed from Tyler Kennedy and fired a shot into the empty Plymouth goal to cap off the 4-2 victory.

“We have a tough time on some nights getting the puck to the net,” said Hounds coach Craig Hartsburg about their struggles on the power play this season, “but tonight we didn’t (get a lot) to the net, but when we did, it found the back of the net. We had a lot of shots blocked but we kept trying to get it there. It wasn’t pretty, but the way (Plymouth) was killing them you have to keep trying to get it to the net.”

"As the game went on I think our attitude was instead of to wait for something bad to happen, we decided we were going to make something good happen,” Hartsburg said of the team’s total effort. “for a while there in the third it looked like ‘Here we go again’ but we got some power plays and we found a way.”

Hartsburg went on to comment on the goal supplied by Chris Lawrence, his third of the season.

“It’s good for the kid’s confidence,” Hartsburg said of Lawrence’s goal. “There’s times where we’re all upset with Chris but if the puck starts going in the net for him then maybe he’ll start to do more things for us. I think he can still be a lot better player for us but you’ve got to start somewhere. Sometimes if the puck starts going in, your whole game picks up. He’s just got to try to continue to compete harder.

“He’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders,” Hartsburg continued.

Hartsburg was pleased with the play of the line of Alex Penner, Jacob King and Josh Moes whom he felt gave the Hounds a lot of energy throughout the night.

The Hounds will have some time to celebrate the victory, but not a whole lot as they get set to host the Guelph Storm in a rare Saturday night home game this weekend. Game time on Saturday night is set for 7:30 p.m.

**** AROUND THE OHL

In other OHL action on Friday night:

AT KINGSTON: Radek Smolenak and Connor Cameron each had a goal and an assist to lead the Kingston Frontenacs to a 3-1 victory over the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors. Wayne Savage made 41 saves in a losing cause.

AT KITCHENER: John Hughes third goal of the game, on the power play with 55 second left in the second period held up as the winner in a 4-3 Belleville Bulls victory over the Kitchener Rangers. Scott Baker chipped in with a pair of assists while Kevin Lalande stopped 39 shots in the victory. Mike Duco and Evan McGrath each had a goal and an assist for the Rangers.

AT LONDON: Adam Perry scored twice while Dylan Hunter scored the winning goal to go along with two assists in the London Knights 4-3 win over the Brampton Battalion. Rob Schremp also had a goal and two assists while David Boland added a pair of assists in the victory. Jason Cassidy had two assists for the Battalion

AT MISSISSAUGA: Ryan Hamilton had two goals and two assists to lead the Barrie Colts to a 6-2 win over the Mississauga IceDogs at the Hershey Centre. Bryan Little added a goal and two assists while Hunter Tremblay and Matthew Bragg each had a goal and an assist for the Colts.

AT OTTAWA: Matt Lahey and Logan Couture each had a pair of goals to lead the Ottawa 67’s to a 7-5 victory over the Oshawa Generals. The 67’s, whotrailed 3-0 at one point also saw Brodie Beard and Jamie McGinn grab three assists while Elgin Reid added a pair of helpers. Peter Tsimikalis had a goal and two assists for the Generals.

AT SARNIA: Mike Angelidis had two goals while Andrej Sekera and Bobby Ryan each had a goal and two assists as Owen Sound defeated Sarnia 6-4. Jeff Kryzakos added a goal and an assist for Owen Sound.

AT SUDBURY: Matt Dias had two goals and an assist while Benoit Pouliot had a goal and two assists as the Sudbury Wolves knocked off the Guelph Storm 6-2. Marc Staal added a pair of assists in the victory.

AT WINDSOR: Steve Downie had three assists in his return to Windsor to face his old team, the Spitfires. Downie’s three assists came in a 4-3 Peterborough Petes victory. Trevor Hendrikx and Jamie Tardif each added a pair of assists in the win. Cal O’Reilly and Patrick Davis had a goal and two assists each for the Spitfires.