RECAP; Kartye sinks Sudbury
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
There’s something about playing the Sudbury Wolves that brings out the hero in Tye Kartye.
For the second time this season, the Soo Greyhounds veteran winger wounded the Wolves in overtime, notching the winner – on a laser-beam shot – at 1:12 of the extra frame on Wednesday.
Kartye’s 24th goal of the season capped a comeback from a 4-1 deficit as the Hounds edged Sudbury 5-4 before 2,476 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
“That feels really good,” said the Kingston native, who also scored in OT against the Wolves in a 4-3 victory on Oct. 20 here. “Rory (Kerins) kicked it out to me, I saw some open ice, took it and just tried to get the shot on net.”
Kartye’s quick release and pin-point accuracy resulted in a bar-down goal, rifled past netminder Mitchell Weeks high on the glove-hand side.
While saying he was “really happy” to see Kartye fire home the winner, head coach John Dean also spoke of how “getting himself into open ice and taking those two steps before he shot was exceptional.”
“That felt great,” Kerins said of the winner, which gave the Hounds seven straight (5-0-2-0) without a loss in regulation, while boosting them to 16-9-2-0 overall.
That’s two points up on Windsor (14-9-2-2) in the race for top spot in the OHL’s West Division, with the Hounds slated to face Saginaw (7:05 p.m.) on Thursday at the Dow Event Center.
“You give Kartye a shot in the slot and he’s probably going to score,” added Kerins, who, while finishing with two goals and two assists, was motivated by two turnovers he had committed.
Both led to Sudbury goals as the Wolves, buoyed by the brilliant goaltending of Weeks, built leads of 3-0 in the second frame and 4-1 in the third.
“Two goals were solely on me,” admitted Kerins, who told his teammates during the second intermission the Hounds were destined to win. “I was super determined.”
The star centre’s 15th of the season, on the finishing end of a give-and-go with Kartye, trimmed the home team’s deficit to 3-1 at 17:14 of the second period.
But Michael Derbidge beat Hounds goalie Tucker Tynan for his second goal of the game to give the Wolves a 4-1 advantage just 2:13 into the third.
However, two minutes later, Kalvyn Watson, fresh off the injury list, redirected a Kerins feed to make it 4-2.
And 55 seconds after that, Owen Allard’s blast beat Weeks up high to trim the Soo’s deficit to 4-3.
“That felt great,” Allard said of the second goal of his rookie season. “I got a great feed from (Marc) Boudreau and I just ripped it to his glove side.”
That set the stage for Kerins to tie the game on the power play with 2:22 to go in regulation. After his initial shot was blocked, Kerins grabbed the rebound and fired high to the glove side on Weeks for his 16th.
“We have such good firepower, even when we’re down by three, we can make comebacks like that,” said Dean, whose club held a 35-26 edge in shots. “When we get rolling, we can be pretty special.”
While the Hounds were playing for the first time since Dec. 17, when they entered their Christmas break, COVID-19 had kept the Wolves sidelined since Nov. 28.
Blowing a 4-1 lead in the final period was the result of “some mental fatigue late in the game,” said Wolves head coach Craig Duncanson. “I was pleased with the effort, but when the game was on the line, we didn’t work as smart as we needed to.”
Sudbury fell to 8-13-2-0, but the fault surely didn’t fall on Weeks.
“He’s a consummate professional,” Duncanson said. “Without him, it could have been real ugly, real early.”
The Soo peppered the Wolves netminder in the opening period, outshooting Sudbury 14-4, but the teams skated off in a scoreless tie.
Kartye and Kirill Kudryavtsev finished with two assists each for the winners. Kocha Delic and Dominik Jendek rounded out the Wolves scoring. Alex Assadourian contributed a pair of assists.
Dean spoke of how he liked the way the Hounds controlled the first period.
“Maybe we got too high on ourselves between periods,” he said of the mistakes his club made in the middle frame, allowing the Wolves to score three times in a span of 4:40. “But the response by our veteran guys was impressive.”
Notes:
Following Wednesday’s cancellation of the World Junior Championship, due to a number of positive COVID-19 tests, the Hounds are awaiting the return of Team Canada defenceman Ryan O’Rourke and Team USA centre Tanner Dickinson.
When asked, Hounds general manager Kyle Raftis said he doesn’t expect either back in time for the Saginaw game on Thursday.
“Hockey Canada and USA Hockey are still working through the travel arrangements,” Raftis said late Wednesday afternoon. “They won’t return in time for Thursday’s game, but we expect them back on Sunday in Sudbury.”
Following Sunday’s 2:05 p.m. clash, the Soo will remain in the Nickel City and the teams will meet again on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m.
