Hounds enjoy decisive second period
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo courtesy of Sudbury Wolves
On Wednesday, the Soo Greyhounds looked like an old pickup truck leaking oil.
But in the second period, two days later, they resembled a fast, new sportscar.
The Hounds scored five times in the middle frame on Friday, en route to a 7-3 victory over the Sudbury Wolves in front of 3,911 at Sudbury Community Arena.
“Yeah, definitely, that was our best period of the season,” said winger Noah Laus, whose club snapped a three-game losing skid after having won just once in its previous six starts. “That’s the style we need to play every night.”
“I thought we were dominant,” added centre Quinn McKenzie, who spoke of the Greyhounds being “super determined” after being “embarrassed,” while surrendering five goals in Wednesday’s opening period.
The Hounds went on to lose 7-0 to the Erie Otters.
But 48 hours later, Drew Bannister discussed how impressed he was with his team’s showing in the middle twenty.
“We were really good in the second,” said the Soo’s head coach, whose team improved to 11-6-2-0 going into Saturday’s 7:07 p.m. home-ice clash against Barrie (3-11-3-0). “It was a dominating period as far as the scoreboard goes.”
Bannister talked of how pleased he was with the way his defencemen shot the puck. Ditto for the net-front presence the visitors displayed.
“That was really lacking in our game against Erie,” he added. “I thought we moved the puck out of our zone quickly. We did a lot of good things offensively and forced them to defend. Our guys came to work and they got rewarded.”
After starting slowly and getting outshot 14-7 in the first period, the Hounds managed to escape with a 2-2 tie.
But they looked like a different team in the second, beginning with an early power-play tally. After McKenzie won a face-off, Laus fed Colin Fitzgerald in the slot. He snapped a beautifully-placed shot that beat Paulo Frasca high to the glove side at 5:29.
“Our powerplay looked pretty dangerous. We got some good looks,” Bannister offered. “It was nice to see (Fitzgerald) finish off that play. That gave us a little bit of a jolt.”
The visitors went up 4-2 six minutes later. Jakub Winkelhofer sent the puck towards the goal and Laus redirected it high to the blocker side. The goal, at 11:51, touched off a three-goal flurry in 2:15.
On the rush, less than two minutes later, Trevor Daley made a slick feed to Chris Brown. The overage went glove side to make it 5-2 with his seventh goal of the season. That chased Frasca, who was replaced by Bjorn Bronas.
At 14:06, the Greyhounds made it 6-2 when Winkelhofer fired from the point. Jeremy Martin went high glove side with a redirection.
And before the period ended, at 19:22, Bronas made the initial save, but McKenzie scored his second of the night by banging home the rebound from the left side of the goal.
The Hounds wound up outshooting the home side 20-4 in the second period. Final shots were 31-27 in favor of the visitors.
With the score 7-2, Sudbury connected 36 seconds into the final frame. Sault native Luca Blonda beat David Vermirovsky on the stick side to get the Wolves to within four goals.
However, the home team was unable to get any closer.
“We did a good job in the third protecting the lead,” Laus noted.
The Wolves opened the scoring 5:24 in when Brayden Bennett deposited a rebound from a bad angle at 5:24.
Seven minutes later, McKenzie snapped a 14-game goal drought off the rush. The native of Cranberry Township, Pa., beat Frasca high to the glove side for his second goal of the season.
“That felt great,” said McKenzie, who scored 21 times a season ago. “I’m going to get on a roll now. I’ll be buzzing.”
Just 35 seconds after that, Travis Hayes, following a nice feed by Brown, put the Soo up 2-1.
But just 25 seconds later, Sudbury made it 2-2 when Genc Ula scored high on the glove side from the slot.
McKenzie finished with two goals and an assist while Laus added a goal and two helpers.
Fitzgerald, Brown, Martin and Hayes all finished with a goal and an assist while Winkelhofer notched three assists and Daley had a pair.
Bannister heaped praise on his defensive corps.
“The whole group was real good.”
Notes:
The Hounds settled their goaltending situation on Friday. After he cleared waivers, overage Landon Miller returned to his home in Barrie. Miller, taken by the Soo in the second round of the 2022 OHL draft, was in his fourth season. His departure leaves the netminding in the hands of Vermirovsky and fellow first-year man William Camputaro.
Bannister confirmed Camputaro will start Saturday against Barrie.
The Soo skated Friday minus veteran rearguard Callum Croskery. The Oakville native was handed a two-game suspension by the OHL, after being assessed an instigator penalty in the final five minutes of Wednesday’s loss to Erie.
The Hounds coach said winger Ryan Kaczynski (upper body injury) is getting close to returning, but is unlikely to play on Saturday.
