The Soo Greyhounds squandered another opportunity in their for fight for their playoff lives.
With a chance to gain some ground in the Ontario Hockey League playoff race and pad their eighth place lead with a Windsor loss in overtime, the Greyhounds blew a 3-0 lead and fell 4-3 to the Sudbury Wolves on Friday night in Sudbury.
After a scoreless first period, the Greyhounds scored three goals in 4:18 to open the second period.
Jeff Carter put the Greyhounds on the board with a goal just 49 seconds into the period. Chris Lawrence followed with his sixth goal of the season before Carter scored his 28th of the season and second of the night short handed to give the Hounds the 3-0 lead at the 5:07 mark.
The Greyhounds scored the goals after Wolves goaltender Patrick Ehelechner left the game 10 seconds into the second period with an injury. Kevin Beech steeped in a surrendered a goal to Carter on the first shot he faced.
The Wolves rallied from that point and Beech settled down as Sudbury scored twice before the period ended to cut the deficit to 3-2 on goals by sniper Bobby Chaumont and Luke Dubbin.
In the third period, Rafal Martynowski took over and scored twice in the frame, to add to his two assists in the second period, to secure the comeback victory for the Wolves. Chaumont and Dubbin also added two assists each.
Kevin Druce made the start in net for the Greyhounds and stopped 23 of 27 shots directed his way.
After a big Greyhound win over Plymouth on Wednesday to extend the lead over Windsor for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference to three points, Windsor cut the lead to a point with a 5-2 win over Owen Sound on Thursday.
On Friday, the Spitfires fell 3-2 in overtime to Mississauga but still gained a valuable point to pull into a tie with the Greyhounds with 48 points each.
The Greyhounds sit with a 22-26-3-1 record in 52 games while Windsor carries a 20-21-2-6 record with three games in hand.
The Hounds are off until Thursday when they begin a three-game West Division road trip in Windsor. The team follows with stops in Sarnia on Friday and Plymouth next Sunday afternoon.
Windsor will have an opportunity before Thursday's match to take advantage of one of those games in hand as they host the Toronto St. Michael's Majors on Super Bowl Sunday.