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While they haven’t clinched anything, they managed to put some pressure on other teams.
With the teams they’re battling with for the final two playoff spots in the Ontario Hockey League’s Western Conference off on Wednesday night, the Soo Greyhounds forced the hands of the Sarnia Sting and Owen Sound Attack a little bit.
They did it by way of picking up a win on the road in Sudbury against the Wolves.
A goal from Owen Allard with a little over eight minutes to go in regulation time was the difference as the Greyhounds grabbed a 3-2 win over the Wolves at Sudbury Community Arena in the final road game of the regular season for the club.
The win gives the Greyhounds a three-point edge over the Attack and Sting in the standings.
“(Wednesday’s win) gives us confidence, (but) I don’t think any of us feel like we have breathing room,” said Greyhounds coach John Dean. “The mode that we’re in right now is ‘win every period.’”
“The reality is, this just gives us more confidence in what kind of team we are,” Dean added. “It doesn’t change our approach for the next two hockey games.”
Allard added that the win is also a chance to build some momentum heading into the regular season’s final weekend.
“We’ve won our last three games, so we just want to continue the momentum,” Allard said. “It wasn’t our best game tonight, but our style of play has been really good the last month or so. We’re trying to build our habits and clean up all the details before playoffs start.”
Admitting there were parts of their game that needed work, Dean said he liked the Greyhounds ability to stick to the plan, even when the Wolves opened the scoring and tied the game in the second period.
“I liked that we didn’t get down when they scored their first goal,” Dean said. “I liked that we continued to generate opportunities to score. We mismanaged the puck a little bit tonight, but we were scrappy. Our guys know we mismanaged it a bit and they kept scrapping and finding ways to recover from their mistakes.”
Sudbury got on the board first as Chase Coughlan went to the net on an odd man rush and took a pass from Nathan Villeneuve on the right wing before beating Greyhounds goaltender Nolan Lalonde 5:26 into the game.
The Wolves would carry the lead into the second period before the Greyhounds tied the game at one early in the second period.
Brady Martin picked up the Greyhounds first goal as he skated down the left wing into the Sudbury zone and proceeded to beat Sudbury goaltender Nate Krawchuk with a shot glove side from the faceoff circle 3:07 into the period.
Travis Hayes gave the Greyhounds a 2-1 lead at 12:46 of the middle period when he took a pass in the right faceoff circle and beat Krawchuk stick side on the power play.
Sudbury tied the game 1:59 into the third period after Greg Najda scored his first OHL goal on a shot from the slot after Lalonde stopped a shot from the right faceoff circle by Jack Ziliotto initially.
With 8:29 to go in the third period, Allard gave the Greyhounds a 3-2 lead. Allard skated into the slot and took a pass from Justin Cloutier along the left side boards. Allard proceeded to beat Krawchuk with a shot from the high slot glove side.
Hayes finished the night with a goal and an assist to pace the Greyhounds offensively.
Lalonde made 27 saves in the victory.
“He calmed down the chaos,” Dean said of the overage netminder. “They were around our net quite a bit. We gave up some massive Grade A’s over the course of the game and he handles them with such poise and a calmness about him that allows our guys to take a breath.”
“His personality is a big part of it,” Dean added. “He’s very outgoing and chatty between periods and that allows the guys to know he’s engaged.”
Krawchuk stopped 33 Sault shots for Sudbury in the setback.
The Greyhounds have a pair of regular season games remaining, both at home this weekend. The team is scheduled to host the Saginaw Spirit on Friday night before wrapping up the regular season on Sunday afternoon against Sarnia, a game that could potentially sill have playoff implications for both clubs.
With 58 points, the Greyhounds have a three-point edge on Sarnia and Owen Sound for seventh in the Western Conference.
The Sting have three regular season games remaining, which includes a game on the road on Thursday against the Windsor Spitfires and a game at home against the Flint Firebirds on Friday before traveling to the Sault for Sunday’s game.
Owen Sound’s remaining schedule sees the Attack travel to Barrie to take on the Colts on Thursday night in the first game of a three-in-three. On Friday night, the Colts travel to Kitchener to take on the Rangers before concluding their regular season schedule on Saturday at home against the Guelph Storm.
The Greyhounds have an outside shot of catching the Flint Firebirds for sixth in the conference but would need help to do so with Flint leading by three points with three games remaining. The Greyhounds would need to win both games this weekend and have Flint go winless in games against Sarnia and back-to-back games against Saginaw in a home-and-home series on the weekend.
Christopher Brown missed Wednesday’s game due to injury while Charlie Hilton sat out due to a league-imposed two-game suspension.
Hilton’s suspension is for exceeding the OHL’s three fight limit after the forward got into a fight in Saturday’s game in Flint. The veteran forward will be eligible to return to the lineup Sunday afternoon against Sarnia.