With the Windsor Spitfires having the night off, the Soo Greyhound had an opportunity to move ahead of their West Division rivals and into the final playoff spot in the Ontario Hockey League's Western Conference.
The only thing standing in their way were the Sudbury Wolves, who have given the Hounds a tough time this season winning three of four games between the two teams.
On Wednesday night, the Greyhounds turned a gritty effort into two points in the standings as they beat the Wolves 4-1 in front of nearly 2,800 fans at Memorial Gardens.
The teams played to a scoreless first period although some excitement was created when Hounds defenceman Jordan Smith and Sudbury forward Zach Stortini squared off after a scrum in the Sudbury zone.
For his efforts, Stortini received a minor penalty for roughing along with his fighting major. The Sudbury captain was not too pleased with the call as his club was already going to be short handed as Kyle Lamb was already about to receive a penalty. Stortini was then handed a 10-minute misconduct on his way to the box.
While in the box, Stortini appeared to say something to referee Terry Hobor and Hobor proceeded to give Stortini the rest of the night off, handing the captain a game misconduct to go with the rest of his penalties. All this came just 1:35 into the game.
The Hounds couldn't capitalize on the 5-on-3 though as the game went into the first intermission scoreless.
The second period saw more action offensively as the Hounds opened the scoring at 9:55 when Jeff Larsh, named the game's third star, picked up the puck outside the Wolves blueline and proceeded into the zone untouched along the boards. Larsh then cut into the slot and sent a backhand past Patrick Ehelechner, who was screened on the play by Jeff Carter driving to the net. The goal came with the Hounds on the power play.
Sudbury tied the game not long after as Chris Robertson scored his first goal of the season, beating goaltender Kevin Druce at 12:29.
The Hounds took the lead midway through the third period as Aaron Lewicki converted a feed from Larsh to put the Hounds ahead 2-1. A pair of empty net goals, first by Larsh and then by captain Jeff Carter, in the final minute of action sealed the 4-1 victory for the Hounds.
In the loss, Ehelechner stopped 28 Soo shots in being named the game's second star, while Druce stopped 22 Sudbury shots in the win.
Hounds coach Marty Abrams was pleased with his team's game on Wednesday saying the his team put forth a gritty effort needed to win the game. He also said that his team needed to dig deep and drive to the net to score goals, which is something they did consistently against the Wolves.
"We had to play desperate hockey and we did," Abrams said. "It took us a lot of grit and effort tonight. To score goals we had to get lots of traffic. When you're having trouble scoring goals you have to drive the net."
Abrams was also pleased with the play of the line of Larsh, Lewicki and Matt Puntureri. Larsh picked up two goals while Lewicki scored the winner. Although the line didn't start the game together, Abrams felt the need to put Puntureri with Lewicki and Larsh to add some defensive depth to the line which saw a regular shift late in the game.
The win now moves the Hounds two points ahead of Windsor in the Western Conference standings although the Spitfires have three games in hand, one of those games being Thursday night against Plymouth.
The win also moved the Hounds to within five points of seventh place Owen Sound and six points of Plymouth and Erie, who hold the fifth and sixth playoff seeds.
The loss was costly for the Wolves as a win would have vaulted them past Peterborough and Brampton into the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference. Both the Petes and Battalion hold two games in hand on the Wolves.
Next action for the Hounds will be on Friday night when the Belleville Bulls make their only appearance at Memorial Gardens in a 7:30 p.m. start time.