The Soo Greyhounds continued their rebuilding process with a gutsy effort on Wednesday night.
Backed a solid goaltending performance from Jakub Cech and a strong third period effort, the Greyhounds rallied for a 4-2 win over the Sudbury Wolves in front of 2,593 fans at Memorial Gardens.
The win moves the Greyhounds record to 3-2-1 under head coach Craig Hartsburg and to 5-8-2 overall for a third place tie in the Ontario Hockey League's west division with Sarnia. The Hounds are five points back of first place Windsor with a game in hand.
The Wolves opened the scoring 11:00 into the first period on a Ryan McDonough power play goal before increasing their lead to 2-0 at 8:30 of the second period on a goal by Mike Mills.
Martin Tuma got the Greyhounds going offensively with his fourth goal of the season at 12:52 as his high shot beat Wolves goaltender Kevin Beech while the teams were playing four-on-four.
Cech was particularly solid in the second period and kept his team in the game with several big stops.
In the third period, Hounds captain Jeff Carter evened the game at 2-2 with his sixth of the season on the power play. A wide open Carter riffled a wrist shot high past Beech from the left faceoff circle.
The Greyhounds took the lead as first round draft pick Ryan McInerney scored his third of the year with a highlight reel breakaway goal at 10:50. The Hounds nearly added another just seconds later as defenseman Brad Staubitz rang a point shot off the post.
"I think we competed hard but Sudbury is a good team," said Hartsburg. "It took us a while to really feel desperate in the game and play with them. Once we really started to work, were stronger on the loose pucks and kept the puck moving ahead we had some success.
"(Cech) gave us a chance all night and that's what you need from your goalie. You don't need him to win the game but you need him to give you a chance to get your game going and he did that for us tonight."
Tyler Kennedy capped the scoring with an empty net goal. Blair Jarrett recorded two assists for the Greyhounds while Carter and Kennedy each added one. Cech kicked aside 27 of 29 shots for the win.
"I think we got hungry when we went down a couple goals and knew that we had to get back into the game," said McInerney, who was named the game's first star. "We need to get off to a better start but we worked hard and came back and won."
"I think our guys started to push the game to a higher level and we started forcing people more," added Hartsburg. "We forced mistakes and then we scored a power play goal and kept going from there. The last five minutes we didn't stay back on our heels, we kept pursing the puck and when you do that, you end up the puck a lot more."
The Hounds played the game minus overage forward Reg Thomas, who is away from the team to attend his grandmother's funeral.
The Greyhounds continue their three-game home stand on Friday as the Plymouth Whalers visit Memorial Gardens for a 7:30 p.m. start. The Peterborough Petes are in town on Sunday at 7 p.m.
*** CHALLENGE CUP:
The game marked the second matchup between the Greyhounds and Wolves as the two teams battle for the Bell Challenge Cup. The winner of the six-game regular season series between the two teams will be awarded the inaugural Cup.