VIDEO: Greyhounds ride opening period to win over Rangers

Thanks to three goals in just under three minutes late in the opening period, the Soo Greyhounds will head out on the road with an unbeaten record.

Heading on the road Saturday for their first regular season action away from home, the Greyhounds will do so on the heels of a 5-2 Ontario Hockey League victory over the Kitchener Rangers Friday night at the GFL Memorial Gardens.

For the Greyhounds, the opening period was as good as the team could have hoped for.

“It was probably our most polished period of the young season,” said Greyhounds coach John Dean.

Ryan O’Rourke, Cole MacKay, and Ryan Roth scored in the opening frame for the Greyhounds and put the Rangers behind quickly.

For Rangers coach Jay McKee, aside from the empty net goal scored by the Greyhounds, the goals the Rangers gave up were by-products of mistakes.

“In the first period we generated some chances but made some individual mistakes,” McKee said. “The four goals that we gave up outside of the empty-netter were all on individual mistakes.”

The Rangers have struggled early on in games this season and it’s something that has been taxing on some of the clubs top players.

“When you’re playing on back-to-back days or three games in just over three days, you want to keep rolling four lines and when you’re down three, you have to play your guys that have shown they can score so you’re expending too much energy on those guys and your fourth line isn’t getting the ice time you would like to give them,” McKee said. “That’s three games in a row that we haven’t had the starts that we want.”

The game shifted in the second period and goals by Reid Valade and Isaac Langdon of the Rangers cut the Greyhounds lead to one goal.

For Dean, the second period was one in which the Greyhounds “got really sloppy with the puck.”

“Credit to Kitchener, they clearly came out and they clearly wanted to have a little bit of a push back and they started getting physical,” Dean added.

McKee said the conversation after the first period in the Rangers dressing room was about what needed to be done to get back on track in the game.

“It was a matter-of-fact conversation about the things we had to do to be successful and the way we had to play,” McKee said. “We had a really good response from that. We had a good second period and we were playing pretty well in the third until we had the mistake on the giveaway on the (fourth goal).

Zack Trott and Cole MacKay also scored for the Greyhounds. Trott finished the night with a goal and an assist while Jaromir Pytlik assisted on a pair of goals.

Ethan Taylor got his first start of the season for the Greyhounds and stopped 22 shots.

“He’s gone out of his way to make sure he’s prepared,” Dean said. “Tonight was a step forward in showing that he can handle the net against a high-end hockey club.”

Jacob Ingham stopped 28 shots for the Rangers.

The Greyhounds return to action on Saturday night on the road in Saginaw while the Rangers wrap up a three-game road trip on Sunday afternoon.

In other action around the OHL on Friday night, in Hamilton, Pasquale Zito’s goal midway through the third period was the difference as the Windsor Spitfires beat the Hamilton Bulldogs 2-1.

In Kingston, Jack Quinn scored 11 seconds into overtime to give the Ottawa 67’s a 3-2 win over the Kingston Frontenacs.

In Mississauga, Oliver Suni had a goal and three assists as the Oshawa Generals beat the Mississauga Steelheads 6-5. Allan McShane had a pair of goals while Ty Tullio chipped in with a goal and two assists for the Generals. Duncan Penman scored a pair of goals for Mississauga.

In Sarnia, Ilya Solovyov had a goal and four assists as the Saginaw Spirit beat the Sarnia Sting 9-3. Damien Giroux scored twice for the Spirit.

In Sudbury, MacAuley Carson had a goal and three assists as the Sudbury Wolves beat the North Bay Battalion 11-3. Owen Gilhula added two goals and an assist while David Levin and Blake Murray had a goal and two assists each. Quinton Byfield assisted on three Sudbury goals.

In Guelph, Nico Daws made 28 saves as the Guelph Storm blanked the Owen Sound Attack 4-0. Cam Hillis had a pair of assists for the Storm.

In London, Antonio Stranges and Connor McMichael scored a pair of goals each as the London Knights beat the Erie Otters 6-2.