Hounds stumble in a Major way

The Soo Greyhounds were hoping to head into next weekend's road trip on a winning note.

With games against Sarnia, Windsor and Saginaw on tap next weekend, the Hounds looked to end a successful two game homestand with a win after beating Brampton on Friday night.

Instead, the Hounds came out of the gates flat and never recovered as they suffered a 6-1 loss to the Toronto St. Michael's Majors on Sunday afternoon in Ontario Hockey League action at Memorial Gardens. The Majors opened up an early 2-0 lead as they scored on two of the first six shots they directed at Hounds netminder Kevin Druce.

Sal Peralta, who had a strong game for the Majors, opened the scoring at 4:02 with a power play marker.

Just under three minutes later, Connor Cameron, son of Majors coach and former Hound bench boss Dave Cameron, put the Majors up 2-0 with a goal that chased Druce from the game in favour of Jakub Cech.

The Majors took a 3-0 lead into the first intermission as Tyler Haskins scored at 16:20 on the power play.

In the second period, the Majors continued to roll as Ryan Rorabeck, the game's first star, padded the Majors lead as he scored twice in the period, first at 9:19 and then again at 13:36 to give the visitors a 5-0 lead.

Dale Good, who made the jump to the Majors from Clarkson University, capped off the Majors scoring with a goal at 15:56.

In the third, the Hounds managed to break the shutout bid of St. Michael's goaltender Justin Peters as Adam Rhymer knocked home a rebound to make the final 6-1 in favour of the Majors.

Anaheim prospect Tim Brent chipped in offensively for the Majors assisting on three goals.

The game wasn't without its share of fireworks though, as six fighting majors, eight 10-minute misconducts, and two game misconducts were handed out by referee Peter Kostyk in the third period.

Peters, the top rated goaltender in the OHL for next summer's OHL draft, was solid in the win, stopping 27 shots in being named the game's second star. Cech and Druce combined to stop 28 Toronto shots in the loss.

Hounds head coach Marty Abrams said following the loss that he didn't anticipate his team coming out flat against the Majors, although he feels the problem is his club maturing.

"The Guelph game (an 8-3 loss on November 14th), we as a coaching staff anticipated it. Today caught us totally off guard," said Abrams following the game. "We didn't see it coming. We haven't matured yet as a team though. There's games we're going to look back on and say we should have won."

Abrams went on to say that there was an opportunity for him to get some of his younger players more into the game after the score was somewhat out of reach. Although he would rather it be with a big lead instead of being down, it was a chance for him to rest some of his older players.

The pulling of Druce was something that Abrams said was looked to as a possible shakeup and that it was a night where Druce wasn't quite on his game.

"As a coach you get to know the players better as to when they're on or not," Abrams said. (Pulling Druce) was an opportunity to shake things up a bit and tonight Kevin paid that price. He's a veteran though, he'll bounce back."

Abrams was happy with the fact that his club has been able to keep their shots against totals down a bit, but he felt there were a couple of things that cost his team on this day.

"Our power play probably cost us the game today," Abrams said. "Specialty teams and goaltending wins games for you in this league."

The Hounds power play was 0-for-7 against the Majors after going 3-for-7 in Friday night's 5-1 win over Brampton.

In other action OHL action on Sunday afternoon, the London Knights used two point performances from David Bolland and Dennis Wideman as they knocked off the Guelp Storm 4-2.

The Oshawa Generals got a late goal from Brandon McBride, his second goal of the game, to give the Generals a 3-2 win over the Sudbury. A three point performance, a goal and two assists, from Patrick O'Sullivan gave the Mississauga IceDogs a 4-1 win over Ottawa.