Puck management key for Greyhounds
Story by Brad Coccimiglio (Sootoday.com) | Photo by James Egan Sports Photography
The Soo Greyhounds success will be based on puck management and on Friday night it was something that was the difference against one of the top teams in their conference.
Citing puck management as a difference, the Greyhounds skated to a 4-1 Ontario Hockey League victory over the Kitchener Rangers on Friday night at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
The team scored a pair of goals in the first period and bounced back after the Rangers took the play to the Greyhounds early on in the contest.
“All we’re going to talk about all year is about how we manage the puck at their blueline and how we manage the puck in their zone,” said Greyhounds Coach John Dean. “In the second half of the first period and into the second period, we started using the net in the offensive zone and we started managing the puck at their blueline. When your leaders and your best skilled players are doing that, everyone else follows.”
For the Rangers, the Greyhounds forced the visitors to turn the puck over and made life difficult in the process.
“We turned over too many pucks,” said Rangers Coach Jay McKee. “We got away from what helped us have success in the first six games. When you’re turning over pucks and have to chase back to your own zone and you’re not putting pucks on net and driving to the net, it’s making it easy for the opposition.”
McKee added that he felt the Greyhounds outworked the Rangers.
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