Johnston scores twice, Greyhounds snap losing skid

A pair of streaks came to an end on Wednesday night and for the Soo Greyhounds, it was an end to a long losing skid.

A four-gaol second period, triggered by an early shorthanded goal by Alex Johnston, helped the Greyhounds to a 6-2 Ontario Hockey League victory over the Sudbury Wolves at Sudbury Arena on Wednesday.

For the Greyhounds, the win snapped a seven-game losing streak while it also ended Sudbury’s four-game winning streak in the process.

“It always feels nice to get two points but more than anything, I’m really happy for the guys,” said Greyhounds coach John Dean. “It was tough to work as hard as they did over the last couple of weeks and not see the results.”

“We needed that one,” Johnston said.

“We played pretty well,” the second year forward also said. “It’s a step in the right direction.”

Making his first start with the team after being acquired from the Kingston Frontenacs on Tuesday evening, Brkin made 29 saves for the Greyhounds, including 15 in the third period.

“Bailey was very good,” Dean said. “If we did get lost in coverage, he would end the play right there. He played the puck very well. He killed a lot of plays. Right now, it’s no secret that sometimes we can get scattered for an extended period and for him to kill some of those plays, we can take a deep breath and send the next line out and away we go.”

“We had a bit of a tough start and Bailey settled us down really nicely in the first seven or eight minutes,” Dean also said. “Then we started managing the puck better. We started playing with speed. We were harder on our sticks. We won 50/50 battles. All the little things it takes to win hockey games at this level, it seemed like we put a little more emphasis on that as a group tonight.”

Johnston finished the night with a pair of goals, which included the shorthanded marker where he took a turnover at the Sault blueline and went in alone on Sudbury goaltender Mitchell Weeks to make it 2-0 at the time.

“When you’re on a losing streak, you’re a fragile team,” Dean said. “To get that shorthanded goal is huge. It propelled us.”

“To go up two, it felt really good to get a little bit of a cushion and get a little bit of confidence,” Johnston said.

Dean also called a goal by Jaromir Pytlik in the third period an important one as well.

“That was a big goal too,” Dean said. “It allowed us to take a breath. Both those goals were big for us.”

Tye Kartye had a goal and two assists for the Greyhounds while Billy Constantinou and Cole MacKay also had two assists each.

Zack Trott and Tanner Dickinson also scored for the Greyhounds.

Greyhounds captain Ryan O’Rourke, who was injured on Saturday night against the Flint Firebirds, missed Wednesday’s game.

MacAuley Carson and Blake Murray scored for the Wolves.

Weeks made 27 saves.

Next up for the Greyhounds is a pair of home games over the weekend, beginning on Friday night against the Hamilton Bulldogs. Puck drop at the GFL Memorial Gardens is set for 7:07 p.m.

The following night, the Greyhounds host the Oshawa Generals, also in a 7:07 p.m. puck drop

The Greyhounds enter weekend action with a record of 7-12-1-0.

Sudbury’s record falls to 13-8-0-0

In other action around the OHL on Wednesday, in Flint, Jordan Kooy made 50 saves as the Sarnia Sting beat the Flint Firebirds 5-1. Kelton Hatcher and Jacob Perreault had a pair of goals each for Sarnia. Jamieson Rees assisted on a pair of Sting goals.