GAME PREVIEW; Mar. 5/17 – SSM @ KIT

A three-game road trip comes to a close this afternoon when the Greyhounds skate into the Memorial Auditorium for the second and final time this season.

To-date, it has been the visiting team taking the two previous meetings between the two clubs.  More on that a little bit later.

Entering today’s game the Greyhounds are unbeaten in their last 5 games (4-0-1-0) and are 7-2-0-1 in their last 10 games.
It was on Friday Night that rookie netminder MATTHEW VILLALTA recorded his 1st career OHL shutout with a 37-save performance in Guelph.

As for the Rangers, it’s been a very busy week for them.
Today mark’s their 4th game on this week’s schedule as they have picked up wins over Guelph (4-3) and Niagara (4-1) along with a close defeat (4-5) at the hands of the London Knights.

Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (42-15-3-1, 88 points)
@ Kitchener Rangers (34-24-2-2, 72 points)

HEAD-TO-HEAD
They only meet four times each regular season, and all four games this year were scheduled in the second half of the season.

Tonight will be the first of two games between the Greyhounds and Rangers in less than a week.  Kitchener skates into the Essar Centre on Friday, March 10th @ 7:07 PM.

Let’s take a look at the two previous meetings so far;

L 1-4, Feb. 17 @ SSM
After skating through a scoreless opening period, Barrett Hayton put the Hounds on the board 5:56 into the second period with his 7th goal of the year;  Just over a minute later Kitchener pulled even and then after taking the lead the visitors would score the only goals of the third period en-route to four unanswered goals and the victory;  Hounds outshot Kitchener 39-22;  Both teams were 0-for-3 on the powerplay
(Boxscore)

OTW 6-5, Jan. 6 @ KIT
Hounds trailed 2-1 after the first and sat tied 2-2 after forty minutes before wild third period;  Teams traded off goals as the Hounds held leads of 3-2 (Senyshyn), 4-3 (Gettinger), 5-4 (Katchouk) before the games was forced to overtime;  There just 11 seconds in Boris Katchouk ended the game with his 19th game of the season;  Hounds outshot Kitchener 32-23;  Rangers were 3-for-5 on PP
(Boxscore)

300 FOR MACINTYRE
He first stepped onto the ice in OHL action back on September 21, 2012.
Now in his 5th season, BOBBY MACINTYRE will hit the milestone of his 300th career regular season game played this afternoon.

See the related story on soogreyhounds.com HERE.

MOVING UP IN THE HOUNDS RECORD BOOKS
With a pair of goals on Friday Night, his 38th and 39th of the season, ZACH SENYSHYN now sits with 111 goals in his career as a Hound.

He presently sits 9th in the team’s record books surpassing Graeme Bonar (109) and now closes in on Steve Gatzos (117).

PLAYOFF BATTLE OF THEIR OWN
There is still so much to be decided in the Western Conference to determine what teams will finish where, and who their opening round playoff opponent will be.

Presently Kitchener (6th) is looking to hold off the Flint Firebirds (7th) for playoff position.

To view the OHL Conference Standings CLICK HERE.

RANGERS RANKED
While the Greyhounds have four players ranked in the latest NHL Mid-Term Rankings (Villalta, DeMeo, Frost and Timmins), Kitchener has five players that made the list.

Greg Meireles (39th), Dylan Seitz (100th), Nick McHugh (176th), Joseph Garreffa (191st) and Elijah Roberts (208th) all were recognized by the NHL Mid-Term staff.

TOP 3 IN SCORING
GREYHOUNDS
• Bobby MacIntyre (23-48-71);  6 GWG;  20 PP Pts
• Zach Senyshyn (39-19-58);  233 SOG;  9 GWG
• Boris Katchouk (29-25-54);  6 SHG;  8 PP Pts

RANGERS
• Adam Mascherin (34-59-93);  41 PP Pts;  257 SOG
• Joseph Garreffa (23-33-56);  3 GWG
• Connor Bunnaman (31-14-45);  19 PP Pts

OHL BOXSCORE
For all the stats throughout the game check out the OHL boxscore HERE.

RADIO/TV
The Rock 101 pre-game show with Gerry Liscumb Jr. begins starting at 1:30 PM.  You can hear the action by tuning your FM dial to 101.3 or listen online HERE.

ShawTV will bring the live action as well starting at 2:00 PM.

MUIO’S PREDICTOR CHALLENGE
Don’t forget to take part in tonight’s “Muio’s Predictor Challenge”.

Tweet us who you predict to score the Hounds first goal for a chance to win a $10 Muio’s Restaurant gift card.  #muios

Photo by James Egan Photography