Hounds offense explodes against Spits

The Soo Greyhounds offensive attack opened up in a big way on Sunday afternoon to demolish the visiting Windsor Spitfires.

In a time of year where every game becomes crucial in the fight for playoff positions, the Greyhounds faced a must-win situation against Windsor and cruised to an 8-2 win in front of 2,405 Ontario Hockey League fans at Memorial Gardens.

With the Greyhounds having played the most games in the OHL, Sunday's match-up with Spits drew even more importance as Windsor holds four games in hand on the Hounds and trailed the locals by three points for the final playoff position in the western conference heading in.

With the win, the Greyhounds improve to 20-21-1-1 for 42 points and build a five point lead on the Spitfires for third in the west division and seventh in the conference. The Soo trails the Sarnia Sting by four points and the Plymouth Whalers by three for the division lead.

"If there was ever a true four-pointer then this would be it with them having the games in hand," said Greyhounds head coach Marty Abrams. "They're a good team and I think we caught them flat footed tonight. But to come out with that kind of effort was outstanding."

Rookie forward Jason Pitton had his best game as a Greyhound and netted three goals to lead the attack. Jeff Larsh added two goals and an assist, Jeff Doyle scored once and setup two others, Scott Dobben recorded three assists while Brett Connolly, who also played a solid game, scored once and added an assist.

The Greyhounds exploded out of the gate and opened a 3-0 lead in a five minute span during the first half of the opening period.

Pitton, the game's first star, opened the scoring on the power play before Larsh scored just 16 seconds later. Pitton banged home his own rebound minutes later to give the Hounds a 3-0 lead and chase Windsor goaltender Matt Anthony from the game just 9:23 in.

Windsor responded and controlled the play during the remainder of the first period and much of the second but were unable to beat a stellar Kevin Druce in the Greyhounds net.

Druce, who regained his familiar "Druuuuuuce" chant with the local faithful, made several big saves in the opening period including a fantastic sliding stop on Ryan Donally while short handed and a quick kick stop on sniper Rob Hennigar with 13 seconds left in the frame.

"I was concerned after the first because I thought that they took it to us the last eight or nine minutes of the period but we found a way and Druce bailed us out at times. We are not a good enough team to have average goaltending. We need good to excellent goaltending to be successful and we got that today," said Abrams.

Doyle scored his 16th of the season for the lone goal in the second period.

Windsor put themselves back in the game to open the third period as Sault native Craig Kennedy setup a John Scott Dickson goal and Donally added another on the power play to cut the lead to 4-2.

But the Greyhounds unleashed an attack of four goals in 4:54 to chase the Spitfires back on the bus. Larsh added his second of the night and 10th of the season to give the Hounds a 5-2 lead and prompt coach Abrams to call a time-out to talk to his troops.

"(Assistant coach) Denny (Lambert) and I have talked about this for a long time now. We have had opportunities in past where we have gone up two or three goals and then kind of sleep a little bit so I wanted to remind them to stay on their game and not let them back in it again," said Abrams.

The message definitely sunk in as Colt King, with his eighth of the year, Connolly, with his third, and Pitton, with his third of the game and seventh of the year, then scored in a 59 second span to seal the victory.

"It's great to get some production out of our younger guys. Pitton had three tonight but Brett Connolly was outstanding today and Andrew Desjardins has continued his strong play of late. Matt Puntureri did a great job out there of shutting down their top line and Druce made some big saves when he had to," said Abrams.

"We tried to get the puck to the net and create a little more traffic and now we're doing that without having to mention it every single shift. We are a better team now than we were at the first of December because the young guys have played a lot in Jeff Carter's absence."

Druce kicked aside 39 shots for the win as Windsor outshot the Greyhounds 41-40.

The Greyhounds will play another set of games at home next weekend as the Plymouth Whalers visit on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and the London Knights arrive Sunday for a 2 p.m. start at the Gardens.

The team will also welcome back players Jeff Carter and Chris Lawrence on Friday from the World Junior Hockey Championships and World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, respectively.

In captain Carter's absence, the Greyhounds compiled a 4-5 record and his return will be a huge boost to a team that is beginning to find their rhythm once again. The Greyhounds have scored 21 goals in their last four games since being shutout 4-0 by the Sarnia Sting at home on December 28th.

"I just told the guys after the game that we have made the biggest deal we could make and have added the best player in the world for his age. We're looking at like we're adding two new guys because it seems like they haven't been here in ages. This is going to make us a much better club and we can't wait to welcome them back," said Abrams.

In other OHL action on Sunday, the London Knights received goals from seven different players in a 7-1 win over the Kitchener Rangers. Patrick Asselin scored twice as Saginaw stunned Plymouth 4-1 while Sudbury scored twice in the opening 1:34 of the game and held on for a 4-1 win over Brampton.

Brad Snetsinger and Brad Efthimou scored twice each to lead Mississauga past Kingston 6-3 while Evgeny Kadatskiy scored twice and Justin Peters kicked aside 31 shots as Toronto St. Michael's blanked Barrie 5-0.

Daniel Carcillo scored twice to lead Sarnia past Owen Sound 3-1 as Sault native Patrick Jarrett scored in a losing cause while Ottawa and Oshawa skated to a 2-2 tie.

*** UNDER-17 CHAMPIONSHIPS:

If you are planning to watch The Sports Network's (TSN) tape delayed coverage of Sunday's World Under-17 Hockey Challenge final between Team Ontario and Team Pacific at 3 p.m. on Monday then do not continue to read any further.

Team Ontario, which is coached by former Greyhound defenseman and assistant coach Bob Jones, got two goals from the Sudbury Wolves' Kyle Lamb to pace the team to a 5-2 gold medal win over Team Pacific in front of a sold out crowd in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Greyhound goaltending prospect Kyle Gajewski, who is currently playing with Chatham Jr. B, stopped 21 of 23 shots for the win.

Lawrence, who has played very well according the Greyhound scouting reports, was an offensive leader for Team Ontario at the tournament with three goals and four assists in six games.

Another local connection on the gold medal winning team is Saultite John Mayne, the team's athletic therapist and trainer.