For their coach, Wednesday’s return to home ice for the Soo Greyhounds had a lot of “peaks and valleys.
A team that struggled on the offensive side of the puck in a recent three-game road trip, the Greyhounds scored four more goals Wednesday than they did in the trip.
On the flip side of that, a big lead in the third period was nearly erased by the visitors.
In the end, the Greyhounds skated to a 7-4 Ontario Hockey League victory over the Sudbury Wolves Wednesday at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
“For a team that has really been struggling to score goals, to put (seven) goals up is a good sign,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said. “We’re very happy with opportunity creation.”
Despite the offensive outburst, Dean called it “a very inconsistent game.”
“A lot of peaks and valleys,” Dean added.
Taking a 6-2 lead in the game with nearly seven minutes still to play in the second period, Dean agreed that the Greyhounds got away from their game with the big lead.
“We had a really good first five or six minutes and then it seems to be a pattern for us where we take our foot off the gas,” Dean said. “We were up at one point and we stayed in the offensive zone for about a minute and 10. Our rule is about 25 or 30 seconds we need to change from the O zone to get fresh legs. We don’t do it and it cost us a goal against. I do think we got away from the game because of the scoreboard.”
Wolves coach Scott Barney called some penalty trouble for the Wolves early in the game an issue that made things difficult for the Nickel City club.
“We ran into some penalty trouble early there in the game,” Barney said.
“I’m sure it was a big factor,” Barney also said. “Especially when it was six penalties to one there at one point. You have certain guys playing certain minutes and other guys not getting out there. That’s hockey. Sometimes it goes one way and sometimes it goes the other, but you definitely can’t be sitting in the box for 12 or 14 minutes a night.”
Despite falling behind and trailing 6-2 at one point late in the game, Barney said he was happy with the push back of his team to make the game close.
The Greyhounds opened the scoring as Travis Hayes went to the net and took a pass from Justin Cloutier before beating Sudbury goaltender Finn Marshall at 4:30 of the opening period.
The Greyhounds extended the lead on the power play as Noel Nordh skated in from the right side and took a shot near the top of the slot that beat Marshall 2:33 into the middle period to make it a 2-0 game.
Jordan Charron then added to the Greyhounds lead with a highlight reel goal at 3:26. The rookie forward skated into the Sudbury zone before undressing a Sudbury defenceman in the slot and then beating Marshall glove side from in close.
Sudbury cut into the Soo lead when Chase Coughlan’s initial shot was stopped by Charlie Schenkel, but Kieron Walton proceeded to score on the rebound at 9:46.
Cloutier made it a 4-1 game at 13:31 as he beat Marshall from the high slot after Brady Martin tried to make a pass in the slot, but it was blocked and ended up on Cloutier’s stick.
With Sudbury on the power play, Walton hit Alex Pharand with a pass and the latter beat Schenkel with a one-timer from the left faceoff circle at 15:21.
Brady Smith made it 5-2 just 57 seconds into the third period on a redirection in tight of a pass from Noel Nordh.
The Greyhounds then made it a 6-2 game at 8:51 as Marco Mignosa beat Marshall on a tap-in off a back-door pass from Hayes on the power play.
Sudbury again cut into the Sault lead as Pharand beat Schenkel on a tap-in off a pass from Walton on the power play just 51 seconds later.
The Wolves made it a two-goal game as Pharand beat Schenkel with a shot at 14:12.
Martin capped off the scoring with a shorthanded empty net goal with 2:05 to go in the third period.
Martin and Cloutier had a goal and two assists each for the Greyhounds while defenceman Caeden Carlisle had a three-point night with three helpers in the win.
Smith, Hayes, and Nordh chipped in with a goal and an assist each for the Sault.
Schenkel made 32 saves for the Greyhounds.
In addition to the three-goal night for Pharand, Walton had a goal and three assists for the Wolves in the setback.
Defenceman Nick DeAngelis also had three assists for Sudbury in the game.
Marshall stopped 29 shots for Sudbury.
The Greyhounds now look ahead to a Friday night clash with the Niagara IceDogs before wrapping up the pre-Christmas portion of their home schedule on Sunday afternoon against the Sarnia Sting.
With the victory, the Greyhounds will take a 14-15-0-0 record into Friday’s game.
Sudbury falls to 15-9-4-0 with Wednesday’s loss.
Notes: After officially signing with the team earlier in the day, defenceman Chase Reid was a last-minute addition to the lineup for the Greyhounds Wednesday and left an impression on his new coach.
“(He’s) a big boy and he can skate,” Dean said.
“I liked that he made some mistakes and continued to go back out and demand the puck and continue to try to make plays,” Dean added.
Veterans Christopher Brown and Spencer Evans remain out due to injury while the Greyhounds also played Wednesday’s game minus Owen Allard, who tweaked an injury over the weekend on the road. Sam Bowness also missed the game while defenceman Andrew Gibson was out of the lineup competing at the Team Canada World Junior selection camp.