On Friday, January 21st, the top two teams in their respective divisions took to ice with the first place (20-12-2-1) west division Soo Greyhounds met the first-place mid west division (18-8-2-1) Guelph Storm in Guelph, Ontario in Ontario Hockey League action. The Greyhounds are coming off a 3 – 2 shootout loss 24 hours earlier in Windsor to the Spitfires. The Greyhounds led the western conference with 43 points with the Storm only trailing by four points heading into January 21st.

With 18 seconds remaining in the period, Tye Karyte catches a pass from the left boards from Rory Kerins to fire his 28th of the season from the left faceoff circle to find the back of Guelph goaltender Jacob Oster’s net to give the Soo a 1 – 0 lead. Cole MacKay drew the second helper on Kartye’s goal. Keegan McMullen feeds a pass to defenseman Robert Calisti in the right faceoff circle to rifle a wrist shot under Oster’s catcher to bring the Soo’s lead to 2 – 0 at the 4:36 mark of the second period. MacKay registered his second point of the game assisting on Calisti’s 13th of the 2021 – 2022 season. With the Soo on a powerplay 18:14 into the period and Kartye all alone in front of the Storm net, the OHL scoring leader slides his second under Oster’s left pad to send the Greyhounds into the second intermission up 3 – 0. Kerins and Ryan O’Rourke notched the assists on Kartye’s powerplay goal.

Cam Allen fires a slapshot from just inside the centre of the blueline through traffic to find the back of Greyhound netminder Tucker Tynan’s net under the Soo netminder’s left arm to pull Guelph within two. Michael Buchinger and Danny Zhilkin set up Allen’s fifth of the season at 12:58 of the final period. With Oster on the bench for an extra attacker. Cole MacKay sends the puck length of the ice to find an empty net for his 14th of the season to increase the lead to 4 – 1 at 18:28. With 8.7 seconds left in the game, Storm forward Valentin Zhugin slides Guelph’s second past Tynan’s left pad to bring the score to 4 – 2. Ryan McGuire and Cameron Supryka drew the assists on Zhugin’s eighth of the season.  In the 4 – 2 win over the Guelph Storm, Soo netminder Tucker Tynan stopped 39 of 41 shots in his tenth win of the 2021 – 2022 season while Jacob Oster turned away 26 of 29 shots in the Storm’s ninth loss of the season.

Greyhounds next action will be at home in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario with a three game homestand with their first of three in a midweek clash against the visiting Saginaw Spirit in Wednesday, January 26th in a 7:07 p.m puck drop.

Photo: Bob Davies