London gains revenge on Greyhounds

The London Knights managed to gain some revenge on the Soo Greyhounds with a victory on Thursday night.

The Knights, the top team in the Ontario Hockey League standings, were looking for a little payback after the Greyhounds defeated the Knights 8-6 on Sunday. While the offensive production was down in this game, the Knights managed to pull out a 3-1 victory in front of 7,572 fans in London.

After Sunday's wild affair at Memorial Gardens, the two teams wasted little time generating excitement on Thursday as the Greyhounds Jordan Smith dropped the gloves with Knights captain Daniel Bois just 29 seconds into the game.

The teams would square off two more times in the game as the Hounds' Reg Thomas and London's Danny Richmond battled in the second period before Greyhound defenseman Brad Staubitz dueled the Knights' Brandon Prust in the third.

After a scoreless first period, Greyhound captain Jeff Carter opened the scoring on the power play 32 seconds into the second frame with his 23rd goal of the season.

London would answer two times before the period was out as Dennis Wideman and Prust beat Hounds goaltender Kevin Druce to take a 2-1 lead. Rick Steadman completed the scoring with a power play goal into an empty net late in the third period .

Druce was stellar in the Greyhound net and stopped 34 of the 36 shots he faced. Knights goaltender Ryan MacDonald, the game's first star, stopped 30 of 31 Greyhound shots.

The loss drops the Greyhounds record to 21-23-1-1 for 44 points to remain in third place, three points behind Plymouth and three ahead of Windsor, in the OHL's West Division.

The Greyhounds are back in action on Friday as the team heads south of the border to Erie for 7:30 p.m. start with the Otters. The Hounds complete their road trip on Sunday with a 2 p.m. game in Brampton against the Battalion.

In other OHL action on Thursday, Nick Lees scored three times to lead the Saginaw Spirit to a 4-2 win over Peterborough. Darryl Lloyd scored twice as Windsor doubled Plymouth 4-2 while Ryan Oulahen scored twice and Kevin Couture made 28 saves as Brampton blanked Oshawa 4-0.

*** ALL-STAR SELECTIONS:

Soo Greyhounds captain Jeff Carter was the lone member of the team selected to the Western Conference squad that will participate at the OHL All-Star Classic on January 27th in Peterborough.

Sault native Patrick Jarrett of the Owen Sound Attack was named to the Western Conference squad while a pair of former Greyhounds were all-star selections in Erie's Rob Hisey for the West and former first round pick Jeremy Swanson, representing the Barrie Colts, on defense for the Eastern Conference.

The game will be televised live on Rogers Sportsnet, local cable 32, beginning at 7 p.m.