With veterans making their return to the lineup, the Soo Greyhounds capped off Ontario Hockey League pre-season action on the road and the veterans made their presence felt in the lineup.
The Greyhounds scored four times in the opening period before adding three more in period two en route to a 9-3 win over the Sudbury Wolves on Friday night at Sudbury Community Arena.
In a game that had a lot of positives for the team, one thing stood out for Greyhounds coach John Dean above others.
“The thing I was excited about was how our leadership group set the tone in the game, right from the drop of the puck,” Dean said. “The best coach in your dressing room is current players showing new players the right way to play and tonight our young guys got a really good example of what’s expected of a Soo Greyhound.”
Dean added that the veterans “set the tone in playing fast, playing the right way, getting above the puck, and letting the offence take care of itself.”
The Greyhounds jumped out to an early lead thanks to a goal by Tanner Dickinson 68 seconds into the contest before overage forward Joe Carroll made it 2-0 at 8:05 of the frame.
“Exhibition or not, when you’ve had a group of kids now for 30 days and that you’ve demanded a lot from in terms of effort, passion, and compete day in and day out, it’s really important that you find success at some point so you can point to the positives,” Dean said. “For our older guys to set the tone like that and allow the younger guys to experience some success and take a little bit of stress off their shoulders and sit back and emulate, it helps as a [coaching] staff.”
Rory Kerins led the way offensively for the Greyhounds with a pair of goals and two assists in the game and was one of eight players to have a multi-point game for the club.
Rookie Jordan D’Intino also had a pair of goals and assisted on another for the Greyhounds while Bryce McConnell-Barker also had three points with a goal and two assists for the visitors.
Carroll and Dickinson finished the night with a goal and an assist each.
Connor Toms and Marco Mignosa had the other goals for the Greyhounds.
Kalvyn Watson, Kirill Kudryavtsev, and Justin Cloutier assisted on two goals each in the win.
“When you get an opportunity for individuals to feel good about their game, it’s 90 per cent of the battle,” Dean said. “When you spread the offence around, everyone feels good about themselves, everyone is contributing and that helps the team game as well.”
Playing in his first game with the club, Kudryavtsev earned praise from Dean for his play after just a pair of practices with the team prior to Friday’s game.
“He was great,” Dean said. “His ability to pick up on the systems that we’re teaching is really impressive. His poise with the puck, he makes a lot of little slip plays to the middle that allows us to exit the zone and he does it with a lot of confidence. He makes tough plays look simple.”
Dean added that the Russian blueliner “demands a lot of himself.”
“He’s been here for two practices and he’s the guy in the gym before and in the gym after,” Dean added. “[After the game] I asked him how he felt about his game, we thought he had a very good game, and his answer was ‘I’ve got better than that.’”
Ivanov went the distance in goal for the Greyhounds in the win, stopping 22 shots.
“Sammy battled,” Dean said of the rookie netminder. “In the first 10 minutes of the third period, if not for Sammy, the score could have changed.”
Among the 22 saves, Ivanov made 11 in the third period.
“We took our foot off the gas in the first 10 [in the third] and when that happens, you need a goalie to quiet the game down for you and Sammy did that,” Dean said.
Landon McCallum, Quentin Musty, and Giordano Biondi scored for the Wolves.
Andre Anania assisted on all three Sudbury goals while Ryan Smith had a pair of helpers.
Jonathan Lemaire made 41 saves for the Wolves.
Next up for the Greyhounds is the regular season opener which will see the team host the North Bay Battalion in a 7:07 p.m. start on Oct. 8 at the GFL Memorial Gardens in the first of two games at home on the opening weekend of the OHL regular season.