After a 6 – 5 overtime loss to the Sudbury Wolves in a midweek clash in Sault Ste Marie, the first place (27-15-5-1) west division Soo Greyhounds returned to the ice at the Memorial Gardens for a Friday, February 25th matchup against the visiting first place (29-12-2) midwest division London Knights. Both the Knights and Greyhounds hit the ice with 60 points each heading into the Friday evening OHL contest.
41 seconds into the opening period, Greyhound Rory Kerins sinks an unassisted goal for his 32nd of the season behind London goaltender Brett Brochu to give the Soo a 1 – 0 lead. Rookie Greyhound Owen Allard scores his eighth of the season to bring the Soo’s lead to 2 – 0 at 6:46 with Jack Thompson and Keegan McMullen drawing the helpers on Allard’s goal. At 13:51 of the first, Sean McGurn finds the back of Greyhound netminder Tucker Tynan’s net to pull the Knights within one. Gerard Keane and Cody Morgan had the assists on McCurn’s goal. Allard finds the back of Brochu’s net for the Greyhounds third and Ottawa, Ontario native second of the game at 17:02. Tyler Savard and Kalvyn Watson set up Allard’s goal. With 62 seconds left in the period, Tye Karyte sends the Soo into the first intermission up 4 – 1 with his 33rd of the season. Rory Kerins had the lone contributor on the Greyhounds fourth of the game. Antonio Stranges closes the gap to two at 15:34 of the second for London with Max McCue and Ethan MacKinnon registering the assists. Bryce McConell Barker nets his 14th of the season for the Soo with an unassisted Greyhound goal at 17:46 to give the hosts a 5 – 2 lead. Cody Morgan sets up the Knights final goal with Luke Evangelista finding the back of Tynan’s net at 17:20. With London goaltender Owen Flores on the Knights’ bench with 1:33 remaining for the extra taacker, Kerins scores his second of the game to give the Soo a 6 – 3 win at home. Kartye added the assist on Kerins’ empty net marker. London’s Brett Brochu and Owen Flores combined to stop 20 of 25 shots in the loss while Tucker Tynan made 21 saves in the Greyhounds 6 – 3 win over the Knights.
The Greyhounds will host the Knights for game two of the weekend on Saturday, February 26th in a 7:07 p.m puck drop at the Memorial Gardens.
Photo Bob Davies
