VIDEO: Late surge lifts Greyhounds

They didn’t make life easy on the Soo Greyhounds and the Soo Greyhounds took advantage of a tired team late on Saturday night.

Leading 4-2 late, the Greyhounds scored four times in the final 2:09 of regulation time to beat the Peterborough Petes 8-2 in Ontario Hockey League action at the GFL Memorial Gardens on Saturday.

The Petes kept things close throughout much of the contest, playing a style the Greyhounds haven’t seen often this season.

“They’re an interesting team to play against,” said Greyhounds Coach John Dean. “They do a couple of different things that you don’t see too often in the way they blow the zone to the far blue and they stretch us out. They play a pretty tight trap through the neutral zone. 

“I really liked our puck possession for most of the game,” Dean added. “Sometimes a team can frustrate you and we gave them a couple of free pucks, in the second period especially, when we tried to do too much. That’s the nature of the beast when you play a team like that that’s really trying to slow you down through the neutral zone.”

Playing their third game in as many nights, Saturday’s loss ended a tough weekend for the Petes that saw the team drop all three games.

“The guys have battled hard all weekend,” said Peterborough Coach Rob Wilson. “Mentally it was tough. We brought it back to 4-2 and made a couple of mistakes that hurt us.

“Considering it was our third game of the weekend and we had such a short bench, we were playing pretty well,” Wilson also said. “(The Greyhounds) are a very good team and very offensively explosive. We were controlling what we needed to control. We made a couple of mistakes in the second that hurt us but we were still playing pretty well.”

An empty net goal by Joe Carroll with 2:09 to go in regulation time triggered a stretch that saw the Greyhounds score four times in 1:34 to seal the win.

Mac Hollowell, Morgan Frost, Jaden Peca, and Rory Kerins had a goal and an assist each for the Greyhounds while Jordan Sambrook assisted on a pair of goals. 

Cullen McLean, Ryan Roth, and Brett Jacklin also scored. 

Goaltender Matthew Villalta made 23 saves.

“He made one kick save on the penalty kill in the first period that was a really key save in that period,” Dean said. “He makes that big save to calm us down on the penalty kill and he was there when we needed him to be there.”

The Greyhounds finished the night with a power play goal in six man advantages as well as a shorthanded goal while the game was still close.

“You’re playing a team five-on-five that’s playing you tight and limiting your chances, then we go out and score a shorty and a power play goal and everyone takes a breath,” Dean said. “We were playing pretty well five-on-five but couldn’t find a way to put the puck in the net. 

“That’s the benefit of having really good special teams,” Dean added, crediting the work of Associate Coach Jordan Smith and Assistant Coach Jamie Tardif and their work with the Greyhounds special teams.

Christopher Paquette and Max Grondin completed the scoring for Peterborough. Adam Timleck assisted on both Petes goals.

Hunter Jones stopped 28 shots for the Petes.

“He was solid,” Wilson said of the young netminder. “Take out the last two minutes and he was solid.”

“We’re a young team and he’s had to stand up big for us and he’s been doing that,” Wilson also said.

Roman Pucek and Cole MacKay remained out of action due to injuries.

Jaromir Pytlik also missed Saturday’s game as he served the opening game of a two-game league-imposed suspension.

Pytlik was assessed a major penalty for checking from behind in the Greyhounds win on Sunday afternoon in Sudbury.

The Petes played Saturday’s game without a number of veterans due to injuries.

Zach Gallant, who missed an extended stretch earlier this season due to an ankle injury, had a setback after returning to the lineup. 

Shawn Spearing and Brady Hinz also missed Saturday’s game for the Petes.

In a battle for top spot in the OHL’s West Division, the Greyhounds move three points ahead of the Saginaw Spirit atop the division with 67 points and a record of 31-10-4-1 heading into action on Sunday afternoon against the Kitchener Rangers.

Puck drop at the GFL Memorial Gardens is 2:07 p.m.

Saginaw is also in action on Sunday on the road in an afternoon game against the league-leading Ottawa 67’s.

Saturday’s loss drops Peterborough’s record to 23-22-1-1.

In other action around the OHL on Saturday, in Ottawa, Tye Felhaber scored his 50th goal of the season as the Ottawa 67’s beat the Oshawa Generals 4-0. Cedrick Andree stopped all 38 shots he faced for the shutout. 

In Hamilton, Kade Landry scored 1:32 into overtime to give the Hamilton Bulldogs a 4-3 win over the Mississauga Steelheads. Landry had a pair of goals for Hamilton. Joe Ranger made 36 saves for Mississauga.

In Erie, Chad Yetman scored at 3:57 of overtime to give the Erie Otters a 3-2 win over the Guelph Storm. Goaltender Daniel Murphy made 30 saves for the Otters. 

In Sarnia, Philip Tomasino’s goal at 2:02 of the third period held up as the game-winner as the Niagara IceDogs beat the Sarnia Sting 4-3. Ben Jones and Jack Studnicka had a goal and an assist each for Niagara. 

In Barrie, Kai Edmonds stopped 35 shots as the Barrie Colts blanked the Kingston Frontenacs 4-0. Dalton Duhart had a goal and an assist for the Colts.

In Owen Sound, Cade Robinson scored with 3:36 to go in regulation time, breaking a 2-2 tie, as the Owen Sound Attack beat the Flint Firebirds 5-2.