Wolves strike first in Bell Challenge Cup
Story by soogreyhounds.com | Photo by James Egan Photography | Post-Game audio provided by Brad Coccimiglio (Sootoday.com)
Sault Ste. Marie, ON-
In a game that would determine a Conference leader in this early OHL season, it would be the first twenty-minutes that ultimately handled the first meeting between the Soo Greyhounds and Sudbury Wolves in the Bell Challenge Cup.
Dmitry Sokolov scored three times, including the latter two on odd man rushes as the Sudbury Wolves skated out of the Lock City with a 6-2 victory.
“We made three mistakes in the first period and it happened to be one of their most dangerous players on the ice and he made us pay, every time” began Soo Greyhounds Head Coach Drew Bannister.
“I can’t fault the effort but I thought when things are going well you tend to cheat and push a little bit much and I thought that’s what kind of caused some of those errors, guys trying to do a little bit too much and it hurt us” he continued.
“In the second period, I thought we did a lot of good things. There goalie was making the saves he needed to make. I thought we could have of did a little bit better job getting more pucks to the net. I thought we passed up some good chances and didn’t enough secondary chances too” added Bannister.
With Sudbury up 1-0 early in the first period, ALEX GRITZ would notch his first career OHL goal to pull the Hounds even for the one and only time of the game.
The Cranberry Twp, PA product redirected a left point shot by GUSTAV BOURAMMAN past Jake McGrath at 12:13 to even the score at 1-1. LIAM HAWEL picked up the other assist.
The first period would be capped off by a pair of near identical tallies by the Wolves Sokolov.
Rushing up the right wing amidst odd-man rushes, the Minnesota Wild prospect was given the cross-ice feed that he would make no mistake notching his 7th and 8th goals of the season as Sudbury led 3-1 through twenty minutes.
Early in the second period, and in-between a pair of Greyhound powerplays, Michael Pezzetta increased the visitors lead.
Getting in behind the Greyhounds defence, the Toronto, ON product recorded his 4th goal of the season for a 4-1 Sudbury lead.
And while Wolves Head Coach was referred to as being happy to keep the Hounds to the outside, Bannister felt his club had some quality chances.
“Ya I think so. We still had some real quality chances that we didn’t score. We had some opportunities and on our opportunities we weren’t able to cash in, on their opportunities they made us pay every time” Bannister commented when asked if his club needed to get more to the inside of the ice.
Two of those quality chances followed the Wolves 4th goal including a drop pass by HAYDEN VERBEEK to DAVID MILLER, before MORGAN FROST rang a slick shot off the cross bar eluding the Hounds from any further offense.
And while one team (Hounds) were unable to connect on their early powerplay chances, the other (Sudbury) would strike on their one and only.
Ryan Valentini put Sudbury ahead 5-1 scoring from the left circle at the 10:55 mark.
Less than three minutes later Sooite Drake Pilon grabbed his 2nd goal of his rookie OHL campaign when he was the open man and skated towards the goal and wristed home a goal at 13:16 as the Wolves had a commanding 6-1 lead.
That sixth goal would spell the end of the evening for Hounds netminder JOSEPH RAAYMAKERS who ended the night with 13 saves on 19 shots, to be replaced by MATTHEW VILLALTA.
In relief the Hounds rookie netminder faced just nine shots over the final 26:33 of the contest.
Along with outshooting Sudbury 9-7 in the third period, the locals would score the one and only goal of the third period.
At 2:59, on the powerplay, the Hounds won the draw back to CONOR TIMMINS who hammered home his 1st goal of the season, and 5th of his career, to make it a 6-2 game.
The teams would skate through the final seventeen minutes without any further offense, as Sudbury took over 1st in the Eastern Conference and the Hounds fell to 7-4-0-0 on the season.
“We were a lot better than we were last weekend, there’s no question about that. It’s a 6-2 game, obviously we lost and we are unhappy about that” concluded Bannister.
To view the online boxscore CLICK HERE.
ATTENDANCE – 3,628
RED STAR THREE STARS
1 – Dmitry Sokolov, SBY (3g)
2 – Jake McGrath, SBY (40 saves)
3 – Alex Gritz, SSM (1g; 1st Career OHL goal)
UP NEXT;
The Hounds host division opponent the Flint Firebirds, along with OHL leading-scorer Ryan Moore on Friday evening – October 21st – at 7:07 p.m.
Great seats are available by purchasing your tickets at the Essar Centre Box Office (10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday or 10 a.m. through game time on Friday), online anytime at www.essarcentre.ca or by phone at 1.866.775.9422.
