Early-season showdown
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
They’re the only two Ontario Hockey League teams with at least nine victories.
They’re also the only OHL clubs who presently appear in the Canadian Hockey League’s Top-10 Rankings.
With 65, the Soo Greyhounds have scored more often than anyone in the 20-team loop. The London Knights are the league’s stingiest defensive team, allowing just 25 goals against.
Is this about as good a matchup one can hope for early in a new season?
You bet.
“It’s an exciting one for us,” said Hounds overage Cole MacKay, whose club carries a 9-5-0-0 mark into the 7:30 p.m. Friday clash with the Knights (9-1-1-0) at Budweiser Gardens.
“It’s going to be a huge test,” offered veteran centre Rory Kerins while discussing Game 1 of a two-game trip.
The Greyhounds also visit Windsor for a 7:05 p.m. start on Saturday.
“We’re excited to see where we’re at against a really-good hockey club in London,” said Hounds head coach John Dean, whose charges are coming off of a 6-5 loss to Guelph on Saturday here. “They don’t give up a lot defensively. They’re very, very tight and structured defensively.”
Paced by veteran netminder Brett Brochu, who sports a 2.27 goals against average and a saves percentage of .926, the Knights have often placed rival offences on a starvation diet.
However, London has yet to play a team as prolific as the Greyhounds. Kerins (9-14-23) is second in the OHL scoring race behind Guelph’s Sasha Pastujov (13-12-25). Hounds overage winger Tye Kartye (13-8-21) is tied for third while MacKay (7-12-19) and veteran centre Tanner Dickinson (4-15-19) are tied for sixth place.
And rookie centre Bryce McConnell-Barker, a London, Ont., native, has four goals in his last two games and carries an 8-3-11 stat line into Friday’s clash. No OHL rookie has scored more often.
“We’ll have to play our best against them,” said MacKay, whose club finally cracked the CHL’s Top-10 on Wednesday, finding itself ranked No. 10.
The Knights are ranked No. 2, behind only the Western Hockey League’s Winnipeg Ice.
“We’ll have to play a full game, one of our best games,” added Kerins.
Asked about his team’s confidence level, Kerins answered: “One-hundred per-cent, we’re confident. We’re excited.”
After reeling off nine consecutive victories to begin the season, London lost 3-2 in Flint last Saturday, before dropping a 4-3 overtime decision at home to Guelph on Tuesday. The Knights are averaging just over 3.5 goals per game through their 11 starts.
“It’ll be tough to generate (chances) against them, and we’re going to have to stay very disciplined on our side of the puck as well,” Dean noted.
As for the Spitfires, after reviewing video, Dean called Windsor “a team with a high-octane offence. They can score at any time.”
The coach also spoke of how the Spits, who are averaging just under 3.5 goals per game, “probably think they can score even more. When they do break out, they can break out in bunches. So we’re going to have to be on the right side of the puck.”
Windsor carries a 5-4-0-2 mark going into a Friday game in Sarnia before coming home to play host to the Soo.
Hounds winger Tyler Savard had been looking forward to a matchup against his father, Spitfires head coach and former NHLer Marc Savard.
However, the Soo rookie won’t be on the trip after suffering a lower-body injury early in Sunday’s loss to Guelph.
“It’s tough, but we get a lot of looks at Windsor this season and I’ll get a chance to beat my father down the road,” said Tyler Savard, who recently produced back-to-back, two-goal games and has four goals and five assists in 14 games. “But I was obviously looking forward to seeing my dad and going up against him.”
With Dean calling his injury status “day-to-day,” Savard joins fellow winger Kalvyn Watson (broken wrist) on the sidelines.
Notes:
As part of their planned departure on Thursday, the Hounds will cross the Canada-U.S. border here for the first time as a team. All staff and players underwent COVID-19 testing Tuesday morning in the Sault, doing so within the 72-hour window which will allow them to cross back into Canada at the Sarnia border later in the day.
Upon arrival in London, the entire travelling party will be tested again. That test will fall within the 72-hour window which will allow the Greyhounds (who will come home through Michigan) to cross back into Canada early Sunday morning at the Sault Ont., border.
