The Soo Greyhounds want the start of games at the GFL Memorial Gardens to make life difficult for visiting teams and that’s exactly what they did on Wednesday night.
Despite coming out of the opening period tied at one, the Greyhounds out shot the Sudbury Wolves 16-4 and used a four-goal second period to beat their northern rival 7-4 on Wednesday night in Ontario Hockey League action.
The start to the game was prime for the Greyhounds.
“This is the team that we want to be,” said Greyhounds Coach John Dean. “We want visiting teams to come in and get peppered in the first 20 minutes while playing on the road. That’s the kind of team we want to be is to get on them early and that sets you up for a nice 60 minutes.”
Dean went on to call it a “statement start.”
“It wasn’t like we were capitalizing on missed plays,” Dean said. “Our guys, right from the go, wanted to make a statement.”
Wednesday was a game that saw the Greyhounds take the play to the Wolves offensively throughout the night and it was a change for the team a bit of late as they looked to the offensive side of the puck.
“We had a renewed focus of being offensive, making plays off the rush and when our D have control of the puck that we’re ready to pounce,” Dean said. “Our guys were hungry to play offensively.”
“They had a lot of great scoring chances,” said Wolves Coach Cory Stillman. “They moved their feet in the offensive zone and we had guys sit and watch.”
“We chased the game right from the start,” Stillman also said. “And when you’re following the puck with the skill that they have, that’s what happens is they get 40 shots on net and very good chances.”
Morgan Frost paced the Greyhounds with a goal and two assists.
Tye Kartye, Ryan O’Rourke, Cole MacKay, and Barrett Hayton had a goal and an assist each for the Greyhounds.
Zack Trott and Rory Kerins also scored for the Greyhounds.
“It was a 20-man effort,” Dean said. “And at least at home, it seems like we’re over not having good starts. Despite the results, in our last three games, our first period has been very good (in all three games). Now it’s a matter of putting 60 together and tonight, even though we allowed four goals against, it was a very good 60-minute effort.”
In addition to crediting the play of Frost in the win, Dean spoke highly of O’Rourke and Trott in the win.
“I’m used to him (O’Rourke) doing what he’s doing, and you almost forget how young he is,” Dean said. “(Trott) worked really hard tonight and got rewarded with a goal and that was a goal-scorers goal. He’s been working really hard.”
Goaltender Ethan Taylor made 24 saves for the Greyhounds.
Blake McConville had a goal and an assist for the Wolves while Owen Gilhula assisted on a pair of goals. Nolan Hutcheson, Drake Pilon, and Cole Candella also scored for Sudbury.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen got the start for the Wolves, stopping 28 of 34 shots before being pulled with just over 14 minutes to go in the contest.
Jake McGrath entered the game and stopped five shots the rest of the way.
Stillman said the change was in no way an indication of the way Luukkonen played in the game.
The Greyhounds improve to 14-6-3-1 with the win while Sudbury falls to 13-8-1-1.
The Greyhounds now prepare for a weekend road trip that will take the team to Guelph on Friday night and Owen Sound on Saturday.
It opens a stretch that will see the team play five-straight on the road before returning home for action in early-December.
In other action around the league on Wednesday night, in Flint, Greg Meireles had a goal and three assists as the Kitchener Rangers beat the Flint Firebirds 7-2. Nick McHugh had two goals and an assist while Joseph Garreffa also had a three-point night with a goal and two assists for the Rangers.
In Ottawa, shootout goals by Jack Studnicka and Kyle McLean lifted the Oshawa Generals to a 2-1 win over the Ottawa 67’s. Kyle Keyser made 35 saves for the Generals and also stopped both Ottawa shooters in the shootout.