Hounds pull out a shootout win in Sudbury

The Soo Greyhounds pulled out a huge shootout win over the Sudbury Wolves on Friday night in Sudbury.

After back-to-back losses to the Saginaw Spirit, the Greyhounds were in dire need of a victory to avoid a slide down the standings and fall out of contention for a higher playoff seed.

Cody Thornton and Dustin Jeffrey pulled through with goals in the shootout session to lift the Hounds to a 3-2 win at the Sudbury Arena.

The Greyhounds grabbed a 2-1 lead after one period on goals by David Kuchejda and Andrew Desjardins on the power play.

After a scoreless second period, the Wolves tied the game midway through the third as Nick Foligno beat Hounds goaltender Matt Hache.

Sudbury outshot the Hounds 4-1 in the five minute overtime session but were held scoreless sending the game to the shootout, where the Hounds outscored the Wolves 2-0.

Andrew Self also scored for Sudbury while Kuchejda picked up an assist.

Elsewhere around the Ontario Hockey League on Friday night, Saginaw defeated the Guelph Storm 4-3 in a shootout and the Sarnia Sting, lurking three points behind the Greyhounds, whipped the Owen Sound Attack 7-3.

With the win, the Hounds move to within a point of Guelph for fifth place in the western conference and set up a huge matchup between the two teams on Saturday night at the Steelback Centre beginning at 7:30 p.m.

The Storm do hold a game in hand while the Sting have two in hand.

*** GAME SUMMARY:

Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 3 (SO) at Sudbury Wolves 2 Sudbury Community Arena

1st Period

1. Sault Ste. Marie, D. Kuchejda (24) (J. Tlusty) 5:35 2. Sudbury, A. Self (16) (M. Staal, J. Donati) 12:54 3. Sault Ste. Marie, A. Desjardins (15) (D. Kuchejda, J. Godfrey) 17:05 PP

Penalties - B. Good Ssm (holding opp. stick) 8:57, A. Self Sby (hooking) 8:57, A. Campbell Ssm (roughing) 10:58, N. Foligno Sby (roughing) 10:58, B. Halstead Ssm (fighting) 14:27, G. Giudice Sby (fighting) 14:27, D. DiDiomete Sby (boarding) 15:48, B. Good Ssm (tripping) 19:32

2nd Period

No Scoring

Penalties - A. Self Sby (hooking) 0:18, M. Dias Sby (holding) 2:21, G. Giudice Sby (slashing) 2:56, D. Jeffrey Ssm (slashing) 4:17, A. Aliu Sby (roughing) 4:17, A. Desjardins Ssm (tripping) 5:13, T. Cuthbert Ssm (high sticking) 5:24, C. Thornton Ssm (holding) 18:48, N. Foligno Sby (roughing) 20:00

3rd Period

4. Sudbury, N. Foligno (28) (A. Self, J. Donati) 9:32

Penalties - J. Tlusty Ssm (hooking) 6:50, J. Godfrey Ssm (hooking) 10:57, A. McQuaid Sby (holding) 15:09

OT Period

No Scoring No Penalties

Shootout

Round 1 - SSM - Cody Thornton - Yes Round 1 - SBY - Justin Donati - No Round 2 - SSM - Brandon MacLean - No Round 2 - SBY - Akim Aliu - No Round 3 - SSM - Dustin Jeffrey - Yes

SSM Shots: 8 11 5 1 1 TOTAL: 26 SBY Shots: 8 15 11 4 0 TOTAL: 38

Power Play Conversion Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 1-6. Sudbury Wolves 0-6.

Goaltenders

Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds Hache 6-4-0-3 Min: 65:00 SV: 36 GA: 2 [W]

Sudbury Wolves Dahm 17-15-2-4 Min: 65:00 SV: 23 GA: 2 [SL]

Start : 7:32 PM End : 10:05 PM Attendance : 4761

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