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Late comeback falls short for Greyhounds

There were some positives as the Soo Greyhounds continued exhibition action on Friday night in Sudbury
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A stretch of four consecutive goals was ultimately the difference for the Soo Greyhounds on Friday night against the Sudbury Wolves.

With the game tied at two late in the opening period, Sudbury’s Dawson Baker scored with 9.1 seconds to go in the frame and it triggered four consecutive goals by the Wolves, giving the home team a 6-2 lead at the time.

“Playing five young defencemen, they looked tired out there,” said Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister of the Wolves offensive outburst. “It caught up to us and it didn’t seem we have a lot of energy. A lot of the pucks weren’t moving as quickly as we needed them to.”

“Those are mistakes that are fixable,” Bannister added.

The Greyhounds would score three times to make the game close but couldn’t find the equalizer in a 6-5 Ontario Hockey League loss in exhibition action at the Sudbury Community Arena.

“Compared to two weeks ago (against Saginaw), I saw a lot of improvements in our game,” Bannister said. “Especially our young forwards, they did a lot of good thing and created some good offensive opportunities.”

Bannister would also say he “liked the way we came out in the third. There was way more pace to our game and we executed a lot of things.”

Morgan Frost, who returned to the team from the NHL training camp of the Philadelphia Flyers, had a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds.

Rookie forward Cole MacKay also had a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds.

Anthony DeMeo and Hayden Verbeek suited up after participating in recent NHL prospects tournaments as well with the Arizona Coyotes.

Verbeek picked up a goal in the loss.

Keeghan Howdeshell and Robert Calisti also scored for the Greyhounds while Ryan Roth assisted on a pair of goals.

Dougie Newhouse got the start for the Greyhounds and stopped 21 of 26 shots in just under 33 minutes of work.

Free agent netminder Connor Hicks, who skated with the team this week in the absence of Matthew Villalta, saw his first game action with the team and stopped 15 of 16 shots after coming in to replace Newhouse.

“He played well,” Bannister said. “He gave us an opportunity to get back into the game. The guys seemed fairly comfortable in front of him. There were some times when we needed him to make some saves on the power play in the third to keep us alive and he did.”

Defenceman Kyle Rhodes paced the Wolves with two goals and two assists while Dawson Baker, Michael Pezzetta and Anthony Tabak chipped in with a goal and an assist each. Brandon Bastasin also scored for Sudbury while Ryan Valentini assisted on two goals.

Rookie Marshall Frappier stopped 36 shots for the Wolves.

The two teams wrap up the weekend, and exhibition action, on Sunday afternoon in Sault Ste. Marie in a 2:07 p.m. start at the Essar Centre.

Bannister would say he expected the Greyhounds lineup to be similar on Sunday to what it was for Friday’s game with a number of veterans still away at NHL training camps.

The team could be short one more forward as MacKay was injured in Friday’s contest and the extent of the injury wasn’t known on Friday night.

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OTHER SCORES

In Beamsville, Joseph Garreffa had a goal and four assists to lead the Kitchener Rangers to a 7-5 win over the Niagara IceDogs. Defenceman Giovanni Vallati assisted on three Rangers goals. Ondrej Machala had two goals and an assist for the IceDogs.

In Rockland, shootout goals by Graeme Clarke and Tye Felhaber lifted the Ottawa 67’s to a 4-3 win over the Kingston Frontenacs. Clarke had a pair of goals in regulation time for Ottawa. Tyler Burnie had two goals and an assist for Kingston.

In Saginaw, Blade Jenkins had a goal and two assists to lead the Saginaw Spirit to a 6-1 win over the Flint Firebirds. Aidan Prueter assisted on three Spirit goals.

In Windsor, Aaron Luchuk had two goals and an assist as the Windsor Spitfires beat the Sarnia Sting 5-2.


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Brad Coccimiglio

About the Author: Brad Coccimiglio

A graduate of Loyalist College’s Sports Journalism program, Brad Coccimiglio’s work has appeared in The Hockey News as well as online at FoxSports.com in addition to regular freelance work with SooToday before joining the team full time.
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