Hounds continue winning ways into break
Story and photo by soogreyhounds.com | Post-game audio provided by Brad Coccimiglio (Sootoday.com)
KITCHENER, ON-
Tied through both the first and second periods, the Greyhounds would erase a one-goal deficit by scoring four straight goals in the third period, and five overall in the period, before capping off their weekend with an 8-5 victory over the Kitchener Rangers.
The win marked the Hounds third consecutive victory and seventh in their last eight games.
“To be honest with you I didn’t really like our first period. I thought we were better in the second period and our third was really good” began Head Coach Drew Bannister when asked about his overall thoughts from Friday’s tilt.
“They got the one at the end but other than that they really didn’t have much until they pulled their goalie. We had 16 shots, they had 16 shots (in the third period) but a lot of those came in the last five minutes” he added.
Pushing back from some early Kitchener pressure the Hounds would score on their first shot of the game (5;15) when BOBBY MACINTYRE brought the puck in the zone, sent the pass to MORGAN FROST who went high over the glove hand of Luke Richardson for the 1-0 lead.
JACK KOPACKA would stake the Hounds to a two-goal lead (2-0) taking the puck to the net and then depositing home his own rebound for his 7th goal of the season.
The Rangers would pull even on a pair of goals in the second half of the period when Miles Liberati connected on the powerplay (12:12) followed by Darby Llewellyn three minutes later as the teams were tied 2-2 after the first.
Less than two minutes into the second period BORIS KATCHOUK was sprung in all alone but fired wide and then shortly JOSEPH RAAYMAKERS was called upon and blanked Connor Bunnaman from the slot.
Both sides would skate scoreless until the final five minutes.
After Kitchener restored their lead, now 3-2, BLAKE SPEERS countered back with his 11th goal of the season to put the teams tied 3-3 after two periods of play.
Despite the fact that Elijah Roberts provided Kitchener a 4-3 lead just 2:13 into the third period, the Hounds mounted their best period of the game and offensively struck in a big way.
The game became tied at 4-4 after BLAKE SPEERS shot came off the end glass and was batted out of mid-air by ZACH SENYSHYN at 5:22. That goal was the first of two the Hounds would score on the powerplay.
Just over two minutes later SENYSHYN gave the Hounds the 5-4 cushion finishing off a feed from around the net at 7:44 and teh Hounds kept coming.
Thirty-one seconds apart BOBBY MACINTYRE (on a rebound) and HAYDEN VERBEEK (driving to the net on a second chance) connected building the Hounds lead to 7-4.
That goal ended the night for Rangers netminder Richardson, who left with 29 saves on 35 shots. Liam Devine faced just two shots over the final 7:15 of the third.
With under three minutes to play Kitchener would mount some pressure and capitalized on a powerplay, and with the goalie pulled, by Gustaf Franzen.
ZACH SENYSHYN capped off the hat trick and sealed the Greyhounds 8-5 victory with a goal with nineteen seconds to play.
“It was another, kind of like the second in Ottawa, we came out strong. Again we continued to put pressure on their D and capitalized on their turnovers and took advantage a young goalie that was probably struggling with his confidence throughout the game when we jumped on him early in the first” said Bannister of the Hounds third period.
JOSEPH RAAYMAKERS turned in another solid performance stopping 39 of the 44 saves he faced.
With the win the Hounds record improves to 16-14-3-0, good for 35 points and third position in the West Division.
“And especially when you think about the five that have been on the road. Really if you look at our schedule now we’ve got a lot of the tough roadtrips and games out of the way” commented Bannister in regards to how pleased he is with his club winning seven of the last eight games.
“The second half with the amount of games we have at home near the end of the schedule, and the games we have on the road, if we continue to play the way we are right now we should continue to move up by then”
ATTENDANCE – 6,709
RED STAR THREE STARS OF THE GAME
1-Zachary Senyshyn, SSM
2-Tyler Hore, SSM
3-Jeremy Bracco, KIT
To view the complete game summary CLICK HERE.
UP NEXT;
The Greyhounds players and staff now depart to their respective hometowns for the Holiday Season.
On behalf of our entire organization; it’s ownership, management, coaches and players, we would like to wish all of our fans and corporate sponsors a very, Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays.
We hope you enjoy all your time spent with family and friends. Be safe, and have fun!
The Hounds will return to action on home ice on Monday, December 28th when they face-off against division rivals, the Saginaw Spirit.
Game time is set for 7:07 p.m. at the Essar Centre.
Tickets are on-sale at the Box Office during regular business hours of 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday to Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
Fans can also go online to www.essarcentre.ca or order by phone by calling 1.866.775.9422.
