Hounds shut down by Whalers

Home ice has not been too kind to the Soo Greyhounds as of late.

The Plymouth Whalers came in to Sault Ste. Marie and did something that has become quite familiar to the Greyhounds and their fans -- they shut the Greyhounds offence down as they picked up a 3-0 Ontario Hockey League victory over the Hounds on Sunday evening at Memorial Gardens.

The loss, which was the Greyhounds fourth in their last six games, was also the third time that they had been shutout in their past five home dates. Over their last six games, the Hounds have scored just 10 goals.

Plymouth forward Ryan Stephenson opened the scoring at 8:10 of the opening period when he beat Hounds goaltender Kyle Gajewski with his fifth goal of the season.

Veteran defenceman Mike Letizia increased the Whalers lead later in the period when he attempted to centre a puck from behind the Greyhounds goal. The puck hit a skate on its way out from behind the net and deflected past Gajewski to give the Whalers a two goal cushion to work with.

Judging by the way goaltender Ryan Nie was playing in the Plymouth goal, it would be all they needed.

The Greyhounds found themselves with a number of quality chances in the second period only to be turned back time and again by Nie in the Plymouth goal.

In the opening minutes of the period, Nie turned away Hounds forward Tyler Kennedy, stopping the speedy forward's shot from point blank range.

Midway through the period, Nie came across the crease to stop Jason Pitton from in close and then overage forward Blair Jarrett was also turned aside by Nie not long after the stop on Pitton.

Nie made another big stop in the latter stages of the third period when he was face-to-face with Greyhounds star Jeff Carter who was turned aside.

The Whalers capped off the victory when John Vigilante came down the wing and fired a shot that beat Gajewski on the stick side with just 30 seconds left in the game.

In all, Nie made 27 saves to pick up his second career OHL shutout and was named the game's first star. Gajewski stopped 20 shots to take the loss for the Greyhounds.

Hounds head coach Craig Hartsburg was extremely disappointed with the effort of his club following the game.

"I was pretty disappointed with the effort we started the game with," Hartsburg said. "It's a concern that we're not getting people to compete in high scoring areas. We're going to have to look at our line combinations. You have got to find a way to compete offensively and some guys have to do that."

Hartsburg also credited Plymouth's goaltending saying that Nie is "obviously a quality goaltender and his numbers speak for themselves."

Hartsburg said that likely the one positive coming out of the game is the fact that they have some time to practice before they head out for a three game road trip that will see them head to Brampton on Thursday, Guelph on Friday in a game that will be televised on Rogers Sportsnet, and then Oshawa on Sunday.

"The biggest thing now is that we've got three practices before we go away," Hartsburg said. "We need more work and more team play. It's three days of work now before we have to get back at it."

The Greyhounds next home action will be on Friday, Jan. 21 when the Owen Sound Attack makes their lone appearance at Memorial Gardens at 7:30 p.m. *** AROUND THE O:

* John Hughes had a pair of goals while Marc Rancourt added three assists as the Belleville Bulls skated to a 4-3 victory over the Brampton Battalion. Andrew Maksym and Wes Cunningham each had a pair of assists in the win. Brampton's Wojtek Wolski for had three assists in the loss.

* Ryan O'Marra had two goals and an assist as Erie defeated the Kingston Frontenacs 5-3. Erie goaltender Josh Disher stopped 43 shots in the victory. Radek Smolenak had a goal and an assist in the loss while Evan Kotsopoulos added two assists for Kingston.

* Dylan Hunter scored at 4:38 of overtime to cap off a 5-4 come-from-behind victory for the London Knights over the Owen Sound Attack. Hunter had two goals and an assist while Rob Schremp added two assists. Owen Sound goaltender Mike Brown stopped 47 shots in the loss.

* The Mississauga IceDogs and Peterborough Petes combined for five goals in the first period and battled to a 3-3 tie in Mississauga. David Pszenyczny, Patrick O'Sullivan and Michael Swift scored for Mississauga while Jamie Tardif, Jadran Beljo and Patrick Kaleta scored for the Petes.

* Mark Mancari scored twice while Sault native Chris Hulit, Bryan Bickell, and Brad Bonello each had a pair of assists as Ottawa defeated the visiting Toronto St. Michael's Majors 5-2. Justin Donati, playing his first game with Toronto since coming over in a trade with Oshawa, picked up a pair of assists in the loss.

* Michael Richards had a goal and three assists while Justin Azevedo had two goals as Kitchener defeated the Sarnia Sting 5-2. Ryan Munce stopped 46 shots in the Sarnia goal.

* Sault native Kelsey Wilson scored at 6:10 of the third period to lift the Guelph Storm to a 1-1 tie with the Oshawa Generals. Peter Tsimikalis scored the lone goal for Oshawa.

* Sudbury Wolves captain Zack Stortini had a pair of goals while Rafal Martynowski had three assists and Benoit Pouliot added two as the Wolves beat the Windsor Spitfires 5-1.