Hounds tie one on with Petes

For the Soo Greyhounds, every potential point in the standings is important, especially for a team that's fighting to get into the playoffs.

On Friday night at Memorial Gardens, the Greyhounds let a point slip away.

The Peterborough Petes, in a similar situation in the Eastern Conference, came into Sault Ste. Marie Friday morning on the heels of a 5-3 victory over the Belleville Bulls on Thursday night in Peterborough.

In the opening period, both teams got into penalty trouble which led to three power play goals in the period.

The Hounds opened the scoring at 3:11 when Jeff Carter, who played a strong game for the Hounds, took a feed from Tyler Kennedy and beat Peterborough goaltender Matt Iorianni for the 1-0 lead.

Midway through the period, the Hounds had a chance to take control of the game as penalties to Jordan Morrison and former Hound Chris Hawley led to the Soo getting a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:13.

Despite some chances, the Hounds couldn't capitalize and it was Peterborough's turn to go on the power play. Carter took a high sticking minor at 14:08 and then Reg Thomas took a roughing minor at 14:17 to put the Hounds down two men for nearly two full minutes.

The Petes wasted no time in tying the game as Mark Flood beat Soo starter Jakub Cech with a point shot at 14:24 and then Daniel Ryder, named the game's third star, beat Cech at 15:25 to put the Petes ahead by one heading into the first intermission.

In the second period, the Petes took a 3-1 lead early on as Ryder scored his second goal of the evening at 2:34, while the teams were playing four-on-four. The goal chased Cech from the game as he made way for Kevin Druce.

In the third, the Hounds used another power play goal to get back into the game as Brad Staubitz scored on a point shot that seemed to deflect off a player in front at 11:24 to cut the Petes lead to 3-2.

Just over a minute later, Staubitz tied the game on another point shot that eluded Iorianni to tie the game. The Hounds had a number of chances to take the lead, but Iorianni, who was outstanding in the game turned the Hounds away on a number of point blank chances.

Despite a number of chances for both teams in overtime, the extra period solved nothing as the teams settled for a 3-3 tie.

In all, Iorianni stopped 45 Hounds shots in the tie, while Cech stopped six shots and Druce stopped 12 in the Hounds goal.

Following the game, Hounds coach Marty Abrams was fairly blunt when asked if he was pleased with his team's performance saying simply, "No." Abrams said that this was a game they probably should have won seeing as the Petes were coming off a long bus ride after their home game against Belleville the night before.

"It's a good night for them and a bad night for us," Abrams added.

Abrams also said that one of the keys in the game was getting traffic in front of the Petes goal, which was something they didn't do a lot of until the third period.

"We always said we need to get traffic," Abrams said. "We started to get traffic in the third period."

Abrams went on to say that his team needs a better performance on Sunday afternoon when they face Barrie, one of the top team's in the Eastern Conference.

The Greyhounds move to 21-24-3-1 for 46 points and a one point lead over the Windsor Spitfires, who have three games in hand, for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

In other Ontario Hockey League games on Friday night, the Sarnia Sting got goals from four different players along with a three assist performance from Dan Sisca as they beat the Saginaw Spirit 4-3.

The London Knights received a goal and an assist from Brandon Prust, Corey Perry and David Bolland as they beat Plymouth 3-2, Andre Benoit had a goal and an assist as Kitchener knocked off Brampton 4-1 and Chris Campoli scored twice as Erie beat Windsor 4-1.

Patrick Ehelechner stopped 42 shots in the Sudbury goal while Paulo Colaiacovo stopped 30 for Barrie as the Wolves and Colts skated to a 1-1 tie, Mississauga got goals from Dan Rudisuela and Kyle Quincey as they beat Owen Sound 2-1 while the Ottawa 67's beat Belleville 6-1 on the strength of a five assist performance from Rodney Bauman with Greg Goodnough chipping in with two goals.

Matt Ryan scored at 2:41 of overtime to give the Guelph Storm a 4-3 win over the Kingston Frontenacs and Oshawa got a goal from Chris Petrow to gain a 4-3 overtime win over the Toronto St. Michael's Majors.