Fronts edge Hounds in trip finale

KINGSTON, ONTARIO-
It was the Battle of the Unbeaten.
Heading into Sunday afternoon’s contest in Kingston, neither the Hounds (4-0-0-1) nor Frontenacs (5-0-0-1) had lost in OHL regulation play.

Over a minute into the first period, Kingston’s Sam Povorozniouk rung the puck off the crossbar behind MATT MURRAY as the team’s remained scoreless early.

It was in the first period that the Hounds would have to kill off a pair of shorthanded situations after being tagged with “too many men on the ice” minors.

“From too many men on the ice to unnecessary hits, I didn’t like our penalties.  Since it’s not common for our team we can chalk it up as mental fatigue but we need to be better there” stated Hounds Head Coach Sheldon Keefe when explaining the Hounds penalties post game.

The two team’s skated scoreless in the first period while the Fronts kept a slim 12-8 shot advantage over the Hounds.

Fourteen seconds into the second period, Kingston would quickly move the puck in on Murray where Henri Ikonen would jam it past a sprawling Hounds netminder and a 1-0 lead.

Darcy Greenaway would be stopped by Murray in the following minutes after Kingston broke in on a 2-on-1 keeping it a one goal game.

That timely save set up the game tying goal at the 7:57 mark for the Hounds.  On just their second shot of the period JORGEN KARTERUD’s low powerplay shot went gloveside, along the ice on Matt Mahalak to tie things at a goal.

With just over five minutes to play in the period a Kingston goal would be called back upon video review.  With the puck being deemed “kicked into the goal”, the two teams remained tied.

Jean Dupuy regained the Kingston lead with just over three minutes in the period when he cut around the Hounds defence, to the net of Murray and then triggered his 1st goal of the season from the left side.

Kingston led 2-1 after two periods of play.

After killing of an early Kingston powerplay just over a minute into the third, the Hounds would lose the services of BRANDON HUGHES who was on the receiving end of a hit at the Kingston line.

Then with 15:37 to play, SERGEY TOLCHINSKY was sprung to the Kingston zone and but was hauled down from behind resulting in a penalty shot.
Going one-on-one against Mahalak, Tolchinsky’s shot was blockered to the side and the Hounds remained trailing by a goal.

Kingston’s lead increased to a pair of goals at the 11:49 mark when Ryan Kujawinski redirected Henri Ikonen’s right point shot through to make it a 3-1 game.

With just over a minute to play, and the Hounds on the powerplay and with an empty net, Kingston’s Mikko Vainonen made two major blocks at the side of the goal, including directing one shot out of play and handle the Hounds pressure.

The powerplay resumed when ANDREW FRITSCH found DARNELL NURSE at 19:16 with a nice feed to the left of Mahalak to pull the Hounds within a goal.

And after outshooting Kingston 14-9 in the period, the Hounds were unable to come any closer in falling 3-2 to Kingston.

“Our effort was good but with our second game in less than 24 hours and third on the longest trip of the season, that team was too much for us” said Keefe.

“We’ll take four points and some lessons learned back on the bus with us to the Soo and get ready for our first set of divisional games next weekend” he concluded.

Despite the loss the Hounds return home with 4 out of a possible 6 points on the week, and a record of 4-1-0-1 on the season.

Next action is this coming Friday, October 11 when they host division opponent, the Plymouth Whalers (7:07 p.m.).
Tickets are available at the Essar Centre Box Office (M-F 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.), online at www.essarcentre.ca or by phone at 1.866.775.9422.