Hounds outshoot Rangers to end losing skid

The smiles on their faces said it all on Friday night.

The Soo Greyhounds took one step towards breaking out of a slide that saw them lose eight out of their previous ten games on Friday night.

The Greyhounds defeated the visiting Kitchener Rangers 4-3 in a shootout to snap a four game losing skid and instil some confidence back into the club.

After dropping a tough 2-1 decision at the hands of the Saginaw Spirit on home ice on Wednesday, the Greyhounds came out of the gate flying and survived a late game scare for the victory.

The Greyhounds jumped out to an early lead as Ryan Kitchen scored 5:56 in and Tyler Kennedy potted his third of the season at 10:50 to chase Kitchener goaltender Dan Turple from the game as Mark Packwood entered the game in relief.

Jason Pitton, with a power play marker, put the Greyhounds ahead 3-0 at 13:02 as the Greyhounds attempted to take control of the game.

Kitchener scoring leader Evan McGrath scored on the man-advantage at 16:31 to cut the Greyhounds lead to 3-1 after one period.

The period wasn't without it's fisticuffs as David Kuchejda found himself in his first OHL fight after Evan McGrath dropped the gloves with the Hounds import late in the period. The incident led to McGrath receiving a total of 17 minutes in penalties – two for instigating the fight, five minutes for the fight itself and a 10-minute misconduct for getting an instigator penalty.

The Greyhounds received a scare late in the period when Kitchener defenceman Jakub Kindl cross-checked Hounds forward Andrew Shennan into the boards. The hit left Shennan hurt, although he was able to return later in the game. The incident also led to Kindl receiving a major penalty and game misconduct.

In the second period, the Rangers cut further into the lead as McGrath scored his second of the night at 18:31. Turple returned to the Rangers goal at the start of the period and found himself turning aside ten Greyhound shots in the period.

The Rangers wasted no time in the third period tying the game as Mike Duco, who fought Jacob Lalonde midway through the second period, scored just 25 seconds into the period.

The Rangers had an opportunity to win the game in overtime as they were given a man advantage midway through the period when Tyson Aitcheson got nabbed for holding. The Rangers could not beat Hounds netminder Kyle Gajewski and Turple was equally up to the task in the Rangers goal as the two teams settled in for a shootout.

McGrath missed on the first Rangers opportunity leading into Kennedy beating Turple with the first Greyhounds chance. After Duco of Kitchener and Cody Thornton of the Greyhounds both missed, Matt Auffrey set the stage for the dramatic final shot when he beat Gajewski with Kitchener's final attempt.

With the crowd roaring, Kitchen broke in on Turple and beat the Rangers netminder, sending the crowd is over 3,500 into a frenzy.

"Anybody that's against (shootouts) must be on the losing side," Hounds coach Craig Hartsburg joked after the victory. "The whole building was electric. Obviously it would be tough to lose it but it's great for the fans to have it end like that."

Hartsburg added that the two points is more important than anything.

"At this point the two points is most important," he said. "We can look at the positive things we did, especially early in the game. We played very strong physically. We just have to sustain it. It's probably hard to play that physical for sixty minutes but to be able to compete, we got away from it a little bit in the second. You've got to give our kids credit for sticking with it."

Not all was positive for Hartsburg on the night as there were some things that were concerning.

"We missed the net way too much," Hartsburg said. "When you miss the net you have no chance of scoring and we have to continue to harp on hitting the net.

"I thought there were a couple of goals that Juice (Kyle Gajewski) would like to have back that gave them some momentum," Hartsburg continued. "He made some big saves at the end too, in the shootout and in the overtime when we were shorthanded.

"That's all part of the team. We have to keep this in perspective. We weren't perfect, but let's learn from it and take the positives and build some momentum from it."

With the victory, the Hounds improve their record to 6-9 and move to within four points of first place Saginaw and Sarnia in the West Division.

Next action for the Greyhounds will be Sunday night at 7 p.m. when they host the Kingston Frontenacs at Memorial Gardens.

*** AROUND THE OHL:

AT GUELPH: Drew Doughty, Kelsey Wilson, and Rafael Rotter each had a goal and an assist as the Guelph Storm defeated the Barrie Colts 3-2.

AT KINGSTON: Chris Stewart had a pair of goals to go along with two assists as the Kingston Frontenacs defeated the Oshawa Generals 5-1. Connor Cameron chipped in with a pair of goals while Cory Emmerton added a goal and three assists in the victory.

AT LONDON: Dylan Hunter had a goal and four assists while Rob Schremp added three assists in London's 8-3 victory over the Plymouth Whalers. Trevor Kell added a goal and two assists while Robbie Drummond chipped in with a goal and an assist. John Vigilante and Mike Letizia each had a pair of assists for Plymouth.

AT MISSISSAUGA: Oskar Osala and Drew McAvoy each had two assists while Jadran Beljo, Michael Swift, Jordan Grant, and Justin Dacosta had a goal each in Mississauga's 4-3 victory over Brampton. Wojtek Wolski had a goal and an assist for Brampton.

AT OTTAWA: Logan Couture had a pair of goals to lead the Ottawa 67's to a 4-2 victory over the Belleville Bulls. Evan Brophey had a goal and an assist for Belleville.

AT OWEN SOUND: Sean O'Connor potted the shootout winner to give the Erie Otters a 5-4 victory over the Owen Sound Attack. Michael Blunden had a pair of goals and an assist in the victory while Ryan O'Marra chipped in with three assists. Bob Sanguinetti had a goal and two assists for Owen Sound.

AT SARNIA: Chad Painchaud had a goal and three assists to lead the Sarnia Sting to a 5-1 victory over the Windsor Spitfires. Marc Katic and Tomas Pospisil each added a goal and an assist for Sarnia.

AT SUDBURY: Anton Hedman had two goals and an assist while Jonathan D'Aversa added three helpers in Sudbury's 5-2 victory over Toronto St. Michael's. Benoit Pouliot and Nick Foligno each had a goal and an assist as well in the victory.