A slow start was the difference for the Soo Greyhounds on Wednesday night.
With an opportunity to take a stranglehold on their Western Conference final series with the Kitchener Rangers, the Greyhounds dropped a 7-4 decision at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
The win by the Rangers evens the best-of-7 series at two games apiece as the teams travel north for game five on Friday night at the Essar Centre.
The Rangers jumped out to a 4-0 lead through 20 minutes en route to the win.
“Kitchener played well,” said Greyhounds Coach Drew Bannister. “At the end of the day, they were better than us in the first and that ended up being the deciding factor in the game.”
Bannister would go on to say that there were things over the final 40 minutes the Greyhounds can build on heading into game five.
“We fought back and didn’t quit,” Bannister said. “In the second and third, we played well.
We started getting more pucks to the net, so we have to build off that.”
The four-goal outburst chased Greyhounds starter Matthew Villalta from the game after the sophomore netminder surrendered four goals on 15 shots. Tyler Johnson entered the game and stopped 15 shots the rest of the way.
After shutting out the Greyhounds in game three, Mario Culina made 30 saves for the Rangers on Wednesday night.
The Greyhounds continue to look to generate more offensively heading into Friday night’s fifth game.
“We have to make sure we get traffic in front of him,” Greyhounds captain Tim Gettinger said. “If he sees the puck, he’s going to make the save. We have to get traffic on him. Today, we got some traffic on him and we (scored).”
“We did a better job tonight of getting pucks to the net,” Bannister said. “Getting pucks through to the net, when you do, good things happen.”
Keeghan Howdeshell had a pair of goals for the Greyhounds while Gettinger and Taylor Raddysh had a goal and an assist each.
Logan Brown, Greg Meireles, Adam Mascherin and Givani Smith scored in the opening period for the Rangers.
“We had a really good start to the game,” said Rangers Coach Jay McKee. “The guys came out hard. After that, we got a little bit away from our game.”
“The Sault played a lot better in the second and the third,” McKee added. “They had a lot of good chances and just missed on some opportunities and we were able to score on the chances that we had. It could have went either way after the first period.”
Smith finished the night with a pair of goals while Brown, Mascherin, and Kole Sherwood had a goal and an assist each. Joseph Garreffa assisted on four Kitchener goals. Logan Stanley added a pair of assists. Rickard Hugg also had a goal for Kitchener.
Puck drop for game five on Friday is set for 7:07 p.m.
In the Eastern Conference final, the Kingston Frontenacs avoided elimination on Tuesday night thanks to a 5-2 win on home ice. Sean Day had a goal and two assists for the Frontenacs. Game five in the series is Thursday night in Hamilton.