Hounds win to bring on the Knights (video)

Bring on the London Knights.

The Soo Greyhounds set up a date with London and shook the playoff jinx off their backs Sunday night at the Steelback Centre with a dramatic 4-3 overtime win against the Saginaw Spirit to take the best-of-seven western conference quarterfinal 4-2.

Brandon MacLean emerged as the overtime hero for the Greyhounds as he took a feed in front of the net from Andrew Desjardins and beat the Spirit goaltender to lift the Steelback Centre roof.

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The Hounds and Knights are tentatively scheduled to open the series with games one and two in the best-of-seven Ontario Hockey League conference semi-final in London on Thursday and Friday.

Games three and four are tentatively scheduled for Monday, April 9 and Tuesday, April 10 at the Steelback Centre. Hounds general manager Dave Torrie said league approval and finalization of the schedule won't come until Monday morning.

In an exciting contest on Sunday night, the Greyhounds held a lead and gave it up three times in the game before finally securing the series upset win in overtime.

Saginaw had some drama of their own in this game as Jan Mursak scored with just 2:50 remaining in regulation time to tie the game at 3-3 and send it to an extra period.

The Greyhounds power play became a big factor in the game once again by connecting on two opportunities and surrendering a shorthanded goal.

Josh Godfrey's blistering shot from the point counted for both goals with the man advanatge beginning 8:05 into the game on a two-man power play for a 1-0 lead.

Tom Pyatt tied the game for Saginaw at 8:47 of the second period before Godfrey's second goal on a one-timer restored the Hounds lead at 15:58. Patrick McNeil tied the game once again with 20 seconds left in the frame off a goalmouth scramble while shorthanded.

In the third period, the Hounds looked to have put things away 8:16 in as defenseman Tyler Cuthbert notched his first of the series with a point shot to put the locals ahead 3-2.

Dustin Jeffrey picked up two assists for the Hounds while MacLean set up another.

Kyle Gajewski, who stopped Cody Bass on a breakaway 15 into the game, shook off Friday's 7-1 game five loss and had a solid effort in goal for the Hounds, facing 36 Saginaw shots.

Marc-Andre Perron made his second consecutive start for the Spirit in favour of Ryan Daniels, who started the first four games of the series, and faced 29 shots.

In overtime, where the Hounds outshot the Spirit 3-0, the Greyhounds started the period with a power play for 1:57. The Hounds managed two shots with the man advanatge before MacLean scored the winner at the 2:35 mark.

The Spirit were disappointed with the result following the game as they felt the final scoring play developed after the puck hit the referee and came to Desjardins behind the net.

In the end, the Greyhounds were able to effectively shutdown the Spirit's deadly power play and hold snipers Ryan McDonough and Patrick Asselin to no goals, Mursak to one, Ryan O'Marra, who left the series with an injury in game three, to two and Pyatt to three.

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