[{"id":92959,"date":"2026-05-12T14:09:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/?p=92959"},"modified":"2026-05-12T14:09:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:09:58","slug":"wayne-gretzky-named-no-3-on-chls-top-50-players-of-the-last-50-years-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/article\/wayne-gretzky-named-no-3-on-chls-top-50-players-of-the-last-50-years-list","title":{"rendered":"Wayne Gretzky named No. 3 on CHL\u2019s Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years list"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The former Soo Greyhounds standout, OHL Rookie of the Year, Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, and NHL all-time leading scorer ranks No. 3 on the CHL\u2019s Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years list; full rankings and player bios are available at <\/i>chl.ca\/chl50<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Canadian Hockey League (CHL) is proud to announce that Peterborough Petes, Soo Greyhounds, and Ontario Hockey League (OHL) alumnus Wayne Gretzky has been ranked No. 3 on the CHL\u2019s Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years list, a marquee initiative of the CHL\u2019s 50th anniversary season.<\/span><\/p>\n

The countdown recognizes the greatest players from the Western Hockey League (WHL), Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) since 1975-76, celebrating the stars who have defined major junior hockey over the past five decades. As part of the initiative, <\/span>a panel of media members first selected the Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years<\/span><\/a>. The final ranking order was then determined using a weighted formula that combined media and fan voting to rank the players from No. 1 through No. 50.<\/span><\/p>\n

KEY FACTS & MEDIA NOTES: CHL TOP 50 PLAYERS<\/b><\/a>
\nMEDIA RESOURCES (PHOTOS, LOGOS, VIDEOS & MORE)<\/b><\/a>
\nWAYNE GREZTKY MEDIA RESOURCES (PHOTOS, LOGOS, VIDEOS & MORE)<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Gretzky stands as one of the most iconic players in hockey history, with a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that stretches from one of the most dominant single seasons ever produced in the OHL to a professional career that redefined the sport, saw him retire as the NHL\u2019s all-time leader in goals, assists, and points, and left him still holding the League\u2019s career records for assists and points.<\/span><\/p>\n

Born in Brantford, Ont., Gretzky made his OHL debut \u2014 when the league was known as the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League (OMJHL) \u2014 as a 15-year-old call-up with the Peterborough Petes during the 1976-77 season, recording three assists in three regular-season games. He was then selected third overall by the Soo Greyhounds in the first round of the 1977 OHL Draft.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his lone full OHL season with the Greyhounds in 1977-78, Gretzky delivered one of the greatest campaigns in league history, recording 182 points \u2014 70 goals and 112 assists \u2014 in just 64 regular-season games. He added another 26 points, including six goals and 20 assists, in 13 playoff contests.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gretzky\u2019s 182 points remain the second-most in a single OHL season, behind only Bobby Smith\u2019s 192-point campaign with the Ottawa 67\u2019s in 1977-78. Nearly 50 years later, his 182 points and 112 assists still stand as OHL rookie single-season records, while his 70 goals rank second all-time among OHL rookies.<\/span><\/p>\n

His 1977-78 season also set several Soo Greyhounds franchise benchmarks, including the club\u2019s single-season points record, as well as team rookie records for goals, assists, and points. At season\u2019s end, Gretzky was named OHL Rookie of the Year, OHL Most Sportsmanlike Player, and was selected to the OHL Second All-Star Team.<\/span><\/p>\n

In recognition of his lasting impact in Sault Ste. Marie, Gretzky was later named the centre on the Soo Greyhounds\u2019 All-Time Team in 1999.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gretzky\u2019s placement at No. 3 makes him the highest-ranked OHL player on the CHL\u2019s Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years list, one spot ahead of Erie Otters alumnus Connor McDavid, who was ranked No. 4. Together, Gretzky and McDavid stand as two Edmonton Oilers franchise cornerstones and among two of the most accomplished OHL graduates in hockey history, ranking No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, on the CHL\u2019s 50th anniversary list.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following his OHL career, Gretzky began his professional career before joining the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL in 1979-80. Over a 20-year NHL career with the Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues, and New York Rangers, Gretzky became the league\u2019s all-time leader in goals, assists, and points, while setting or sharing more than 50 NHL records.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gretzky won four Stanley Cup championships with Edmonton in 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1988, earning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP twice. His individual accolades include nine Hart Trophies as NHL MVP, a record 10 Art Ross Trophies as the league\u2019s scoring leader, five Lady Byng Trophies, five Ted Lindsay Awards \u2014 then known as the Lester B. Pearson Award \u2014 and five seasons as the NHL\u2019s goal-scoring leader.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time of his retirement in 1999, Gretzky held 61 NHL records, including 40 regular-season records, 15 playoff records, and six All-Star records. He remains the only player in NHL history to record a 200-point season, accomplishing the feat four times, and produced 100 or more points in 15 professional seasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

That same year, Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was later named one of the NHL\u2019s 100 Greatest Players in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

Internationally, Gretzky built one of the most decorated r\u00e9sum\u00e9s in Canadian hockey history. He made his international debut at the 1978 IIHF World Junior Championship as a 16-year-old, leading the tournament with 17 points while earning Best Forward and All-Star Team honours as Canada won bronze.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gretzky went on to win three Canada Cup titles with Canada in 1984, 1987, and 1991, leading the tournament in scoring in each of those three editions. His Canada Cup r\u00e9sum\u00e9 included a record-setting 21-point performance in nine games during the 1987 tournament, where he famously helped set up Mario Lemieux\u2019s late-game winner in the decisive final against the Soviet Union.<\/span><\/p>\n

He retired from international play as Canada\u2019s all-time leader in goals, assists, and points in best-on-best competition. Gretzky was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2000, named to the IIHF Centennial All-Star Team in 2008, and selected to Canada\u2019s IIHF All-Time Team in 2020 as part of the 100th anniversary of the Ice Hockey World Championships.<\/span><\/p>\n

The remaining players ranked in the Top 10 on the CHL\u2019s Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years list will be revealed over the coming days, with full player bios available at <\/span>chl.ca\/chl50<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

CHL Top 50 Evaluation Criteria and Eligibility<\/i><\/b>
\nThe CHL\u2019s Top 50 Players were selected by a panel of more than 40 media members who submitted ranked 1\u201350 ballots guided by a weighted evaluation framework designed to ensure consistency across eras. Panelists considered a player\u2019s impact beyond the CHL \u2014 including NHL and international success, major awards and championships, and Hall of Fame recognition \u2014 alongside on-ice achievement in the Member Leagues, reflecting what players accomplished during their time in the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL through production, individual honours, team success, and sustained dominance. Selections also accounted for historical significance, recognizing milestones, era-defining influence, generational impact, and lasting contributions to CHL history.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

To be eligible, players must have competed in at least one full season in the WHL, OHL, or QMJHL during the CHL\u2019s 50-year history beginning in 1975\u201376; for players who competed in 1975\u201376 and also played prior to that season, their entire CHL career was considered when evaluating on-ice accomplishments.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wayne Gretzky, former Soo Greyhounds standout and NHL all-time leading scorer, ranks No.3 on the CHL\u2019s Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":92963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-92959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-1007","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/57\/2026\/05\/12140937\/May12_Gretzky.jpeg",640,360,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":92961,"date":"2026-05-12T14:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/?p=92961"},"modified":"2026-05-12T14:09:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:09:00","slug":"when-it-came-to-growing-the-game-wayne-gretzky-truly-was-the-great-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/article\/when-it-came-to-growing-the-game-wayne-gretzky-truly-was-the-great-one","title":{"rendered":"When it came to growing the game, Wayne Gretzky truly was ‘The Great One’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Will MacLaren<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wayne Gretzky ranks no. 3<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on the CHL\u2019s Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years<\/em><\/p>\n

Volumes have been written attesting to Wayne Gretzky\u2019s importance within the world of hockey. One of the rare people who turned the game on its ear, The Great One wasn\u2019t just the best of his (or, many would argue, any) era on the ice, he was a trailblazer. But before he made the game a popular trend in any number of new markets throughout the United States, Gretzky became the first prototype for youthful phenom. A key part of that story took place in Sault Ste. Marie.<\/p>\n

Before Eric Lindros, Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid emerged on hockey fans\u2019 radars as pre-teens, there was Walter Gretzky\u2019s kid from Brantford, Ontario. People\u2019s curiosity with the skinny adolescent who worshipped Gordie Howe was alive and well by the time he descended upon the OHA. First, there was a three-game emergency call up with the Peterborough Petes at 15. Then, in the 1977-78 campaign, the 16-year-old slapped on the red and white Soo sweater with a \u201899\u2019 on the back and tore through the league like, well, a greyhound.<\/p>\n

Seventy goals and 182 points later, not to mention two points per game in the postseason, and even the most casual fan knew the name Gretzky. Shoehorned within one of the CHL\u2019s most explosive seasons was a trip to Montreal for the World Junior Hockey Championship. Gretzky held the holiday crowd in the palm of his hand as deftly as he manipulated the puck on his stick, an undersized buzzsaw on skates. Seventeen points in just six games for the bronze medal winning Canadians was the first \u2013 but far from the last \u2013 time Gretzky rose to the occasion on the biggest stage.<\/p>\n

From the \u2018O\u2019, Gretzky helped solidify another trend; entering the pro ranks as a teenager. In the era of the 20-year-old draft age, the young Great One elected to turn pro in the WHA. At just 17, Gretzky filled nets (if not the arena) with the Indianapolis Racers before a fateful trade to the Edmonton Oilers. Gretzky would lead the Oilers into the NHL the following season in 1979; ironically, just four months after the league lowered its draft age to 18. From there, and for much of the next two decades, the world\u2019s best hockey league became Wayne\u2019s World.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the plethora of records Gretzky set and reset; it\u2019s the sheer absurdity of some of them. Who will step up to challenge 50 goals in 39 games? Or 92 goals in a season? How about 215 points in a year, or 2,857 regular season points? And that\u2019s to name but a few. This, combined with 10 scoring titles, nine Hart Trophies and five Stanley Cups make for a career that will likely never be equalled in sheer volume of accolades. When he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1999, the mandatory three-year waiting period was waived in lieu of immediate induction. Two months later, the number 99 was retired league wide by the NHL, the only number so honored.<\/p>\n

At the CHL level, the great former Greyhound\u2019s presence remains in full force. The Wayne Gretzky Trophy is awarded to the OHL\u2019s Western Conference Playoff Champions. The playoff MVP is handed the Wayne Gretzky \u201899\u2019 Award. He might\u2019ve spent just 80 total games in the CHL but Wayne Gretzky\u2019s presence will be felt at the junior ranks for generations to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Will MacLaren Wayne Gretzky ranks no. 3\u00a0on the CHL\u2019s Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years Volumes have been written attesting to Wayne Gretzky\u2019s importance within the world of hockey. One of the rare people who turned the game on its ear, The Great One wasn\u2019t just the best of his (or, many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":92962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-92961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-1007","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/12134013\/CHL-50-headline-web-7.jpg",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":92956,"date":"2026-05-07T15:02:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/?p=92956"},"modified":"2026-05-07T15:02:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:02:25","slug":"2026-ohl-awards-greyhounds-martin-awarded-mickey-renaud-captains-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/article\/2026-ohl-awards-greyhounds-martin-awarded-mickey-renaud-captains-trophy","title":{"rendered":"2026 OHL Awards – Greyhounds’ Martin awarded Mickey Renaud Captain’s Trophy"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO –\u00a0<\/strong>The Ontario Hockey League (OHL) today announced that forward Brady Martin<\/a> of the Soo Greyhounds is this year’s recipient of the Mickey Renaud Captain’s Trophy.<\/p>\n

Martin was chosen for the award by a panel of accredited OHL media members, being recognized as the team captain that best exemplifies leadership on and off the ice, with a passion and dedication to the game of hockey in his community that Mickey demonstrated.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s an honour to win the\u00a0<\/span>Mickey Renaud Captain\u2019s Trophy<\/span>,” said Martin. “I strive to be a leader and help bring out the best in our team and my teammates every day. That becomes a lot easier when you\u2019re surrounded by great teammates, coaches and staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The Soo hockey community has been amazing to me,” he continued. “So being able to help out and give back to the community is something I take a lot of pride in. This is a very special honour and one I\u2019m very grateful for.”<\/p>\n

Martin played three games with the NHL’s Nashville Predators to begin the 2025-26 campaign, and would demonstrate perseverance through an injury-shortened season. He didn’t allow the setback to affect his engagement in the Soo community. Through an initiative organized by the Greyhounds’ academic advisors, Martin made weekly visits to the Great Northern Retirement Home to interact with the seniors living there. He enjoyed playing cards and talking with the residents, building relationships throughout the season. Martin was also part of visits to a daycare centre to interact with three and four-year-olds, reading a Robert Munsch hockey book before playing mini sticks with the children.<\/p>\n

Upon his return to the Greyhounds in late October, Martin produced 24 points (8-16–24) over 24 games before adding 10 points (3-7–10) in as many playoff outings. The 6-foot, 184Ib. centre from Elmira, ON won a bronze medal with Canada’s National Junior Team, recording eight points (4-4–8) in six contests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re incredibly proud of Brady on being recognized with the\u00a0<\/span>Mickey Renaud Captain\u2019s Trophy<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>this season,” said Greyhounds General Manager Kyle Raftis. “To become just the second player in\u00a0<\/span>Soo Greyhounds<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>history to receive this honour speaks volumes about the type of person and teammate he is every single day.<\/u><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

“His impact on our group goes far beyond what you see on the ice,” Raftis continued. “He competes at a high level, genuinely cares about the people around him, and brings a tremendous amount of pride to wearing the Greyhound jersey. He\u2019s the kind of player his teammates respect and lean on because of the way he carries himself and the standard he sets throughout our organization.<\/p>\n

“Whether it\u2019s in the room, on the bench, or in the community, Brady represents the Soo Greyhounds the right way in every sense. This is a very well-deserved honour.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 19-year-old, Martin was originally selected by the Greyhounds with the third overall pick of the 2023 OHL Priority Selection and has registered 124 points (51-73–124) over 133 regular season games with the Greyhounds, posting a plus-43 rating. The Nashville Predators selected him with the fifth overall pick of the 2025 NHL Draft, signing Martin to an entry-level contract on Aug. 20, 2025. He made his NHL debut with Nashville on Oct. 9, 2025 against Columbus, and recorded his first point with an assist on Oct. 21, 2025 against Utah.<\/p>\n

The Mickey Renaud Captain\u2019s Trophy is presented in honour of former Windsor Spitfires captain and Calgary Flames prospect Mickey Renaud, who tragically passed away at the age of 19 on February 18, 2008 due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an underlying heart condition. Renaud, from Tecumseh, ON, played three seasons with the Spitfires from 2005-08, leaving a lasting impact on the city\u2019s hockey community.<\/p>\n

Nomination forms are submitted annually by OHL General Managers on behalf of their individual team captains. The selection committee consists of a panel of four, representing media from each OHL division.<\/p>\n

Martin will be formally presented with the Mickey Renaud Captain\u2019s Trophy at the OHL Awards Ceremony at the Hockey Hall of Fame in June.<\/p>\n

For a complete list of past award winners,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soo Greyhounds forward Brady Martin is this year’s recipient of the Mickey Renaud Captain’s Trophy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":92958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007],"tags":[{"term_id":963,"name":"Brady Martin","slug":"brady-martin","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":988,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":37,"filter":"raw","term_order":"332"}],"class_list":["post-92956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-brady-martin","category-1007","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/57\/2026\/05\/07150213\/May7_Martin_Renaud.jpg",1680,945,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":92929,"date":"2026-04-29T11:33:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/?p=92929"},"modified":"2026-04-29T11:33:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:33:06","slug":"greyhounds-dean-mutually-agree-to-part-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/article\/greyhounds-dean-mutually-agree-to-part-ways","title":{"rendered":"Greyhounds, Dean mutually agree to part ways"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
\n<\/span><\/strong>The Soo Greyhounds Hockey Club announced today that the organization and Head Coach John Dean have mutually agreed to part ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dean served as Head Coach of the Greyhounds since <\/span>originally being hired by the club on July 12, 2018, and played an important role in the development of the team both on and off the ice during his tenure.<\/span><\/p>\n

He served as the franchise\u2019s longest-serving Head Coach (8 years, 7 seasons) while guiding the Hounds to an overall regular season record of 245-178-31-18 in 472 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to thank John for his time as our Head Coach and the impact he had on our players and organization,\u201d said General Manager Kyle Raftis.
\n<\/span>\u201cHe carried himself as a true professional every day and made a lasting impression on so many of our players and staff through his passion and work ethic. As his coaching career continues, there is little doubt he will go on to do great things. We wish him nothing but the best moving forward.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tim Lukenda, President and Governor, added, \u201cJohn is a high character individual that represented our organization well at all times. We appreciated John\u2019s passion and dedication and wish him personal and professional success as he moves forward to his next opportunity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The organization will begin the process of identifying its next Head Coach immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n

Further updates will be provided as they become available.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Soo Greyhounds Hockey Club announced today that the organization and Head Coach John Dean have mutually agreed to part ways. Dean served as Head Coach of the Greyhounds since originally being hired by the club on July 12, 2018, and played an important role in the development of the team both…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":92930,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-92929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-1007","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/57\/2026\/04\/29105016\/Press_Release_Generic.jpg",1672,941,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":92927,"date":"2026-04-29T09:07:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T13:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/?p=92927"},"modified":"2026-04-29T09:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T13:07:17","slug":"shape-a-future-be-part-of-the-journey-billets-needed-for-2026-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/billet-family-application\/","title":{"rendered":"Shape a future. Be part of the journey. Billets needed for 2026-27"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":92928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-92927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-link","category-1145","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/57\/2026\/04\/29090708\/8a0da3a7-9d37-4f0b-b628-00706cd10493-copy.jpg",1672,941,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":92917,"date":"2026-04-27T09:38:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/?p=92917"},"modified":"2026-04-30T09:14:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:14:24","slug":"hockey-school-2026-registration-opens-tomorrow-tuesday-april-28th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/article\/hockey-school-2026-registration-opens-tomorrow-tuesday-april-28th","title":{"rendered":"Hockey School 2026 Registration"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Soo Greyhounds Hockey Club announced details today regarding their 2026 Annual Hockey School.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Scheduled for Monday, August 17th through to, and including, Friday, August 21st, 2026 the event will take place at the John Rhodes Community Centre Rink #2 (260 Elizabeth Street).<\/span><\/p>\n

Featuring Greyhounds\u2019 coaches and players, the school is an activity filled, full week of hockey development and instruction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Combining both on and off-ice instruction, the Soo Greyhounds Hockey School is ideal for players of all calibres aged 7 to 10 years old.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Age groups will be 7 & 8 years old and 9 &10 years old.<\/span><\/p>\n

COST:<\/b><\/span>
\n<\/b><\/span>\u2022 $475 for Skaters<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u2022 $350\u00a0for Goalies<\/span>
\n<\/span>($250\u00a0non-refundable<\/b>\u00a0deposit will be charged once your child is accepted into school.\u00a0 Balance due Thursday, July 30th, 2026)<\/span><\/p>\n

TIME:<\/b><\/span>
\n<\/b><\/span>9:00 AM to 12:30 PM daily<\/span><\/p>\n

WHAT TO BRING:<\/b><\/span>
\n<\/b><\/span>All of your hockey equipment, comfortable clothing, a snack each day and a water bottle.<\/span><\/p>\n

QUESTIONS?<\/b><\/span>
\n<\/b><\/span>Please contact Tracey Herriman at 705-574-0080 or\u00a0tracey@soogreyhounds.com<\/span><\/p>\n

REGISTRATION FORM:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The registration period for the 2026 Soo Greyhounds Hockey School has now concluded. This form is no longer available.<\/p><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Online registration form will be live starting at 7 AM on Tuesday, April 28th and will close at 5 PM Wednesday, April 29th.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In order to provide equal opportunity to all applicants, participants will be selected at random from the pool of applicants using a lottery system *<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Online registration form will be live starting at 7 AM on Tuesday, April 28th and will close at 5 PM Wednesday, April 29th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":92918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007],"tags":[{"term_id":1196,"name":"Hockey School 2026","slug":"hockey-school-2026","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1196,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1"}],"class_list":["post-92917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-hockey-school-2026","category-1007","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/57\/2026\/04\/27093549\/Apr27_Hockey_School.jpg",640,360,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":92902,"date":"2026-04-21T13:41:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/?p=92902"},"modified":"2026-04-21T13:41:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:41:16","slug":"croskery-named-to-national-mens-under-18-team-for-start-of-2026-iihf-u18-mens-world-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/article\/croskery-named-to-national-mens-under-18-team-for-start-of-2026-iihf-u18-mens-world-championship","title":{"rendered":"Croskery named to National Men’s Under-18 Team for start of 2026 IIHF U18 Men’s World Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

TRENCIN, Slovakia \u2013<\/b>\u00a0Twenty-five players will begin the tournament with Canada\u2019s National Men\u2019s Under-18 Team<\/u><\/a>\u00a0as it looks for its third-consecutive gold medal at the 2026 IIHF U18 Men\u2019s World Championship<\/u><\/a>, April 22-May 2 in Bratislava and Trencin, Slovakia.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Three goaltenders, eight defencemen and 14 forwards<\/u><\/a> \u2013 representing eight Members \u2013 were selected by general manager Alan Millar (Tottenham, ON)\u00a0and head scout Byron Bonora (Brooks, AB), with support from Benoit Roy (Sudbury, ON), director of hockey operations, Scott Salmond (Creston, BC), senior vice-president of high performance and hockey operations, and coordinator of hockey operations Jared Power (Calgary, AB).<\/p>\n

Head coach\u00a0Drew Bannister (Sudbury, ON), assistant coaches Matt Anholt (Prince Albert, SK\/Lethbridge, WHL) and Mark O\u2019Leary (Owen Sound, ON\/Moose Jaw, WHL), and goaltending coach\u00a0Dan De Palma (Kamloops, BC\/ Kamloops, WHL) also provided input.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The roster includes three players who won a gold medal at the 2025 U18 Men\u2019s Worlds (Di Iorio, Lin, Verhoeff)\u00a0and 12 who won bronze at the 2025 Hlinka Gretzky Cup(Betts, Chartrand, Di Iorio, Esler, Lawrence, Lemieux, Lin, Preston, Rousseau, Valentini, Verhoeff, Zhilkin). It also includes 19 players who have represented Canada at the U17 World Challenge\u2014nine who won gold (Betts, Croskery, Joseph, Lawrence, Lemieux, Lin, Preston, Valentini, Verhoeff)\u00a0and 10 who took home silver (Ambrosio, Chartrand, Dagenais, Di Iorio, Eshkawkogan, Esler, Hicks, Jacobson, Olson, Wycisk)\u2014and six players making their Program of Excellence debuts (Cali, D\u00e9niger, Hamilton, MacBeath, Olsen, Vandenberg).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cFollowing a competitive camp, we are pleased to announce this group of 25 players who will begin the 2026 IIHF U18 Men\u2019s World Championship for Canada,\u201d said Millar. \u201cWe are excited about our group\u2019s competitiveness, talent and character as we prepare to open the tournament tomorrow against the host Slovaks. This team will represent Canada and their respective hometowns with pride and humility.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Canada opens the 2026 IIHF U18 Men\u2019s World Championship on Wednesday, April 22, facing Slovakia at 12 p.m. ET\/9 a.m. PT. Canada will also play Latvia, Norway and Finland in the preliminary round before the tournament concludes with the medal games on May 2.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast 16 and 10 tournament games, respectively. TSN will broadcast all Team Canada preliminary-round games, as well as the quarterfinals, semifinals and medal games, while RDS will broadcast all Team Canada preliminary-round games, two quarterfinals, the semifinals and medal games.<\/p>\n

For more information on the 2026 IIHF U18 Men\u2019s World Championship, please visit the official tournament website at IIHF.com<\/u><\/a>.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
For more information on Hockey Canada and Canada\u2019s National Men\u2019s Under-18 Team, please visit HockeyCanada.ca<\/u><\/a>\u00a0or follow through social media on Facebook<\/u><\/a>, X<\/u><\/a>,Instagram<\/u><\/a> and TikTok<\/u><\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TRENCIN, Slovakia \u2013\u00a0Twenty-five players will begin the tournament with Canada\u2019s National Men\u2019s Under-18 Team\u00a0as it looks for its third-consecutive gold medal at the 2026 IIHF U18 Men\u2019s World Championship, April 22-May 2 in Bratislava and Trencin, Slovakia. Three goaltenders, eight defencemen and 14 forwards \u2013 representing eight Members \u2013 were selected by general manager Alan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":92903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007],"tags":[{"term_id":1159,"name":"Callum Croskery","slug":"callum-croskery","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1159,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw","term_order":"36"},{"term_id":983,"name":"World U18 Championship","slug":"world-u18-championship","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1008,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1145"}],"class_list":["post-92902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-callum-croskery","tag-world-u18-championship","category-1007","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/57\/2026\/04\/21134101\/Apr21_Croskery_U18.jpg",1680,945,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":92897,"date":"2026-04-18T00:15:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T04:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/?p=92897"},"modified":"2026-04-18T00:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T04:15:28","slug":"dean-it-wasnt-our-night-to-come-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/article\/dean-it-wasnt-our-night-to-come-back","title":{"rendered":"Dean: \u2018It wasn\u2019t our night to come back.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo courtesy of Hailey Tripodi<\/strong>
\nGAME HIGHLIGHTS<\/a> | GAME CENTRE<\/a><\/p>\n

There would be no third period comeback on this night.<\/span><\/p>\n

And no Game 6.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trailing by two goals entering the final frame for the second straight night, the Soo Greyhounds were unable to rally on Friday. They wound up dropping a 5-1 decision to the Kitchener Rangers in front of 6,927 at the Aud.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the outstanding goaltending of Carter George, a sub-par performance overall brought an end to the Soo\u2019s season. They dropped the best-of-seven, Western Conference semifinal to the Rangers, four games to one. Kitchener advances to face the Windsor Spitfires, who swept Flint 4-0 in the other semifinal, in the conference final.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Hounds battled back from a 2-0 deficit after 40 minutes, putting together an impressive rally for a 4-2 victory at GFL Memorial Gardens. That denied the Rangers a sweep and forced Friday\u2019s fifth contest. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut you can\u2019t keep putting yourself in those spots. Tonight, unfortunately, it wasn\u2019t our night to come back,\u201d said head coach John Dean.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTough to come back all the time, obviously,\u201d added Hounds overage Marco Mignosa, who led his club in both regular season (35-54-89) and playoff (7-10-17) scoring. \u201cThey managed the game well. They were tight in the D zone, blocking shots and getting pucks out. It was tough to generate chances.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost to a better team,\u201d added Hounds captain Brady Martin, whose club was outshot 34-16. \u201cThey came in with a mindset that they wanted to beat us and not come back to the Sault. We got outplayed and we just couldn\u2019t find our game.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dean touched on the fact it simply wasn\u2019t the Greyhounds night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely wasn\u2019t our best game here in Game 5,\u201d the coach added. \u201cBut I\u2019m so proud of how hard our guys work and compete. Kitchener played a very good game, credit to them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The second period was particularly disappointing. The visitors were outshot 17-3, while surrendering the only two goals. That put the Soo in a 3-1 hole entering the final 20 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cProbably our worst period of the series,\u201d Dean said. \u201cKitchener did a great job of forcing us into turnovers through neutral ice. And they had a heck of a second period.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tied 1-1 after 20 minutes, the Rangers scored twice in the middle frame, while controlling play.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the Hounds caught up ice, the Kitchener clicked on a 2-on-1 at the 7:41 mark. Jared Woolley fired stick side and though he got a piece of it, George was unable to keep it out of the net.<\/span><\/p>\n

Six minutes later, the home team used a 3-on-2 to notch a power-play tally. Alexander Bilecki made a slick feed to Dylan Edwards on the right wing. The overage notched his eighth goal of the playoffs, beating George high to the glove side. That made it 3-1.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ten seconds later, Justin Cloutier was whistled for roughing, while both Travis Hayes and Callum Croskery were handed 10-minute misconducts for unsportsmanlike conduct.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I didn\u2019t like the penalties,\u201d Dean said when asked. \u201cWe have to keep our emotions under control.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meantime, the Rangers added two late, empty-net goals by Sam O\u2019Reilly to cap the scoring. \u00a0O\u2019Reilly also had a pair of assists, while Edwards contributed a goal and two assists.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scoring his fifth goal of the playoffs and fourth in the last five games, Quinn McKenzie got the Hounds going just 54-seconds into the first period. After a Rangers turnover, a deflection in front of the goal wound up on the stick of Noah Laus.<\/span><\/p>\n

He fed McKenzie alone in front and the Soo had a 1-0 lead. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

George made numerous big saves throughout to keep his team close.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dean used the word \u201cfantastic\u201d to describe the play of the Thunder Bay native.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCarter George is Carter George,\u201d the coach added. \u201cHe gave us an opportunity to potentially have a comeback in the third.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While appearing on the Rogers television broadcast, Kitchener bench boss Jussi Ahokas said the Rangers weren\u2019t about to blow a lead for the second straight night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe played (tonight),\u201d he said, when asked about the difference in third periods. \u201cWe did a solid, great job.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahokas also spoke of how he has no doubt the Rangers were the better team in this series.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe played badly 10 minutes, I would say, in the whole series. They had great goaltending, but we still managed to score.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis obviously sucks,\u201d Mignosa said of going out in Round 2. \u201cThe whole team wanted to go a little farther than we did.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With injured centre Chris Brown (upper body) playing for the first time in the series on Friday, the Hounds were able to dress three 2006-born skaters, along with George in goal. On the flip side, the Rangers dressed eight players in their age-19 season, plus netminder Christian Kirsch.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked about the difference in OHL experience and what role it plays in the playoffs, Dean spoke of how \u201cthere are always youthful mistakes and so experience can be an advantage at times.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the coach refused the suggestion it was a factor in this series.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a good enough team to win, no matter what our average age is,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dean was also asked about Cloutier, the overage winger, who was obviously playing at less than 100 per cent.<\/span><\/p>\n

The veteran Hound lacked his usual feisty approach and had just one assist in nine playoff tilts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no, he wasn\u2019t 100 per cent. But he went out of his way to battle for his team,\u201d said Dean, who talked of how Cloutier\u2019s problem was \u201cillness related.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ottawa native was seriously ill as he battled an E. coli infection through the first half of the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m beyond impressed by him,\u201d the coach continued.<\/span><\/p>\n

Martin, who began the season with the NHL\u2019s Nashville Predators, said he was so proud of the players he competed alongside.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a great group on this team,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had a blast.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Notes: <\/strong>
\nWhile Brown was able to play on Friday, veteran winger Jeremy Martin (upper body) missed his second straight game.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThey came in with a mindset that they wanted to beat us and not come back to the Sault. We got outplayed and we just couldn\u2019t find our game.\u201d – Brady Martin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":92898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007],"tags":[{"term_id":104,"name":"game-recap","slug":"game-recap","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":106,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":342,"filter":"raw","term_order":"523"},{"term_id":10,"name":"Greyhounds Gazette","slug":"greyhounds-gazette","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":766,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":522,"filter":"raw","term_order":"542"},{"term_id":11,"name":"Peter Ruicci","slug":"peter-ruicci","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":389,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":532,"filter":"raw","term_order":"843"}],"class_list":["post-92897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-game-recap","tag-greyhounds-gazette","tag-peter-ruicci","category-1007","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/57\/2026\/04\/17230541\/42849163_0Y0A6979_DxO_jpg_Rangers_Content_20260418_021239-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":92894,"date":"2026-04-17T22:40:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T02:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/?p=92894"},"modified":"2026-04-17T22:40:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T02:40:32","slug":"video-soo-kit-gm-5-april-17-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/video\/video-soo-kit-gm-5-april-17-2026","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO; SOO @ KIT – GM 5 – April 17, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":92895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[{"term_id":2,"name":"Game Highlights","slug":"game-highlights","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":112,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":484,"filter":"raw","term_order":"510"}],"class_list":["post-92894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video","tag-game-highlights","category-112","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/57\/2026\/04\/17223949\/GM5_Apr17_Highlights.jpg",1200,675,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":{"video_id":"2564898","partner_id":"31005","player_id":"47888","width":"16","height":"9","360p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31005\/sd\/2564898.mp4","240p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31005\/ld\/2564898.mp4","480p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31005\/hsd\/2564898.mp4","1080p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31005\/fhd\/2564898.mp4","hls":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31005\/streaming\/2564898\/2564898.m3u8","webp":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31005\/webp\/2564898.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":92881,"date":"2026-04-17T01:08:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/?p=92881"},"modified":"2026-04-17T01:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:09:09","slug":"hounds-third-period-flurry-forces-game-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/article\/hounds-third-period-flurry-forces-game-5","title":{"rendered":"Hounds third period flurry forces Game 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photos by Bob Davies<\/strong>
\nFULL PHOTO GALLERY<\/a> | GAME HIGHLIGHTS<\/a> | GAME CENTRE<\/a><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t quite a Category 4 hurricane.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what the Soo Greyhounds unleashed in the third period on Thursday would surely qualify as a dangerous tornado.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an elimination game, the Hounds grabbed adversity \u2013 they trailed 2-0 through 40 minutes \u2013 and squeezed it into opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n

They scored four unanswered goals, including the first three in a span of 4:02, to defeat the Kitchener Rangers 4-2 in front of 4,613 at GFL Memorial Gardens.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were great the whole third period,\u201d said captain Brady Martin, whose club trails the best-of-seven, Western Conference semifinal 3-1, heading into Game 5 on Friday (7 p.m.) at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. \u201cI\u2019m very proud of our team. We\u2019ve battled adversity all year. To come back and win that game shows the character we have, the will we have, the brotherhood and how much we want to win.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to mitigate fatigue, the Greyhounds and Rangers were both scheduled to fly out of the Sault on Thursday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a 2-0 deficit and staring at what could be the final 20 minutes of 2025-2026, \u201cwe were really determined. We\u2019ve had our backs against the wall pretty much the whole season,\u201d said winger Travis Hayes, who notched the game winner. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in that position so many times, down one or two goals. We have the resiliency to come back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jordan Charron scored back-to-back goals to tie the game 2-2, setting the stage for the Hayes winner.<\/span><\/p>\n

Charron explained how, during the second intermission, head coach John Dean told the players they\u2019re \u201cthe best comeback team in the league for a reason. And we know we have the team to come back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After each of their third period goals, a torrent of cheers washed over the Greyhounds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a special feeling hearing that,\u201d Charron noted. \u201cYou just want to come back and win it for the fans.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On a night when the Soo held a 33-22 edge in shots, the big difference in the third period, said Dean, was his club\u2019s confidence.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said the Hounds discussed that aspect of their game before coming out for the final frame. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dean also spoke of how he thought his players looked nervous over the first two periods.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the third period, the guys just left it out there. They played with some swagger,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey were a little more free. To their credit, everyone jumped on board.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Charron made it a 2-1 game at 5:56 of the third. Taking a feed from Callum Croskery, he fired through traffic from just inside the left point.<\/span><\/p>\n

The shot beat Christian Kirsch high on the blocker side.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just 2:17 later, Croskery made a beautiful play on a rush, eluding four Kitchener defenders before finding Charron on the left wing. The Ayr, Ont., native fired a one-timer, high to the glove-hand side to tie the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hayes notched his first goal of the postseason at 9:58.<\/span><\/p>\n

The veteran winger knocked his man off the puck behind the Rangers goal. Marco Mignosa retrieved it and fed Hayes, who had rolled to the left side of the goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

He fired high glove side to make it 3-2.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI felt a lot of relief helping my team out,\u201d said the Westland, Mich., native.<\/span><\/p>\n

Goalie Carter George was rock solid the rest of the way before Mignosa added an empty-net tally to cap the scoring.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mignosa finished with a goal and an assist while Croskery added a pair of assists.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Rangers opened the scoring early in the first when the Hounds were caught up ice.<\/span><\/p>\n

On a 3-on-2, Haeden Ellis found Cameron Arquette all alone in front for a tap-in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Midway through the second, a Greyhounds turnover in the defensive zone led to Kitchener\u2019s second goal. Andrew Vermeulen made a slick feed to Matthew Hlacar all alone on the left side of the Hounds goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe stopped playing. As simple as that,\u201d Rangers head coach Jussi Ahokas said of his team\u2019s third period problems. \u201cWe didn\u2019t go after them for the first 10 minutes of the third. We got passive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With three goals in the playoffs, Charron spoke of how he feels \u201cmy game is coming back a lot. I have a lot more confidence now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dean said George was \u201cgreat. We gave up a lot of odd-man rushes and he did exactly what we needed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked about Game 5, Hayes spoke of how confident his club is.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have their number right now and they\u2019re shivering,\u201d he said of the Rangers. \u201cThey don\u2019t travel at all and we travel a lot. I\u2019m 100 per cent confident we\u2019re going to win.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of have Kitchener in a blender here,\u201d added Charron. \u201cI think we\u2019re going to win Game 5 and bring it back here for Sunday.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Game 6, if needed, is slated for Sunday (7:07 p.m.) in the Sault.<\/span><\/p>\n

Should the series go the distance, a seventh game would be played Tuesday (7 p.m.) at the Aud.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re ready to play,\u201d Ahokas said of Friday\u2019s contest. \u201cWe have a great opportunity at home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Notes: <\/strong>
\nThe Hounds played minus winger Jeremy Martin (upper body), who was injured due to a head check in Game 3.<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s listed as day to day.<\/span><\/p>\n

So is centre Chris Brown (upper body), although Dean hinted the veteran could return on Friday. \u00a0Defenceman Brodie McConnell-Barker (illness) remains week to week.<\/span><\/p>\n

The winner of this series will face Windsor in the conference finals. The Spits beat Flint 5-3 on Thursday to sweep that series in four straight.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn the third period, the guys just left it out there. They played with some swagger,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey were a little more free. To their credit, everyone jumped on board.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":92826,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007],"tags":[{"term_id":104,"name":"game-recap","slug":"game-recap","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":106,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":342,"filter":"raw","term_order":"523"},{"term_id":10,"name":"Greyhounds Gazette","slug":"greyhounds-gazette","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":766,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":522,"filter":"raw","term_order":"542"},{"term_id":11,"name":"Peter Ruicci","slug":"peter-ruicci","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":389,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":532,"filter":"raw","term_order":"843"}],"class_list":["post-92881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-game-recap","tag-greyhounds-gazette","tag-peter-ruicci","category-1007","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/57\/2026\/04\/16235248\/DSC3045-scaled.jpg",2560,1706,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-greyhounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]