The Soo Jr. Greyhounds assured themselves that they would be in first place heading into their matchup tonight with the North Bay Skyhawks. The Jr. Hounds did so with a 6-1 victory over the Abitibi Eskimos last night at Memorial Gardens.
Both teams got off to what you could call a slow start as the teams combined for just 7 first period shots (6-1 in favour of the Jr. Hounds). The Jr. Hounds took a 1-0 lead late in the period on a goal by Jeff Rainville, who was named the game's first star and played a solid game.
The Jr. Hounds broke the game open in the second period, which was a better period by both clubs, as Matt Hall, Rainville and Mathieu Brunet scored to up the Jr. Hounds lead to 4-0.
In the third period the Jr. Hounds scored an early goal, by Matt West, to chase Abitibi goaltender Alex Bastien from the game. Just over 3 minutes later Matt Tremblay broke Jr. Hounds goaltender Shane Bellini's shutout bid with his 10th goal of the season, but it was a case of too little too late as Joey Coccimiglio scored at 10:11 to seal the Jr. Hounds victory.
Jr. Hound goaltender Shane Bellini stopped 19 of 20 Abitibi shots in the win while Alex Bastien and Sean Sheehan combined to stop 23 of 29 Soo shots on the night in the loss.
The game also marked Soo native Chez Gioia's first game with the Jr. Hounds after being picked up from the St. Thomas Stars of the Western Jr. B league. Gioia played well in his first game with the Jr. Hounds and didn't look out of place.
Next action for the Jr. Hounds is tonight when they face the second place North Bay Skyhawks at the Memorial Gardens. Start time is 7:30 p.m.