Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
After finishing the 2023 – 2024 Great Northern U18 Hockey League season with a (20-13-0-2-1) third place record, the Soo U18 Greyhounds hit the highway for the 2024 GNU18HL postseason tournament in Sudbury, Ontario over the March 20th to 23rd weekend. The Greyhounds opened their tournament with a contest on Wednesday, March 20th against the first place, Sudbury U18 Wolves. The winner of the 2023 – 2024 Great Northern U18 Hockey League postseason tournament will join the hosts, the Soo Greyhounds in Sault Ste Marie on April 8th to 14th for the 2024 U18 AAA Ontario Hockey Federation Championships.
In game one of the 2023 – 2024 Great Northern U18 Hockey League post season tournament, Griffin Albert scored the lone goal in the Greyhounds 4 – 1 loss to the Wolves with Camden Cowan and Lian Watson adding the assists in their opening game of the tournament.
Game two was a nail biter right to the final buzzer for the Soo Greyhounds with the Greyhounds holding of the Majors to improve their 2023 – 2024 Great Northern U18 Hockey League post season tournament record to 1 – 1 with the 3 – 2 win over Timmins.
Greyhound forward Espen Escasa told Saultsports that “We started off slow in our first game. Intensity was low and we lost crucial 50/50 battles. After some rest, and refocusing, we came out flying in game two. We battled hard and did the little things right like blocking shots, finishing our hits, and getting shots on net. Moving forward we have to feed off the energy and excitement from that big game two win and use it as momentum going into the next couple games. We have to continue to battle and outwork our opponents, and good things will happen.”
The Greyhounds will round out round robin action on Friday, March 22nd with two games with the day opening with a 9:45 a.m puck drop against the New Liskeard Cubs followed by a 8:15 p.m Friday start against the Sudbury U16 Wolves.
All 2023 – 2024 Great Northern U18 Hockey League post season scores can be found HERE.
Thursday, March 21st (12:45 p.m)
Timmins Majors (2) vs (3) Soo U18 Greyhounds
Period 1
(08:41) Timmins Majors – Tannen Iserhoff (Travis Poan, Edan Etheridge) (PP)
Period 2
(00:54) Soo Greyhounds – Caleb Walker (Liam Watson)
Period 3
(15:11) Soo Greyhounds – Camden Cowan (Lucas DiBerardino, Griffin Albert)
(09:23) Soo Greyhounds – Edan Etheridge (Jacob Drobny, Brody Donivan)
(08:54) Soo Greyhounds – Wyatt Leblanc (Nathan Dupuis, Liam Watson)
Goaltender
Timmins Majors – Jaret Fenton-Chypyha (Minutes Played: 50)
Soo Greyhounds – Nick Marson (Minutes Played: 50)
Wednesday, March 20th (5:45 p.m)
Sudbury U18 Wolves (4) vs (1) Soo U18 Greyhounds
Period 1
(14:44) Sudbury Wolves – Aleksander Duguay (Keynan Kydd, Cain Savage)
Period 2
(03:33) Soo Greyhounds – Griffin Albert (Camden Cowan, Liam Watson)
(01:48) Sudbury Wolves – Bryden Shank (Felix St.Onge, Lucas Antonioni)
(00:03) Sudbury Wolves – Jackson Culin (Ryan Daze)
Period 3
(00:17) Jackson Culin (EN)
Goaltenders
Sudbury Wolves – Jackson Curran (Minutes Played: 50)
Soo Greyhounds – AJ Borrelli (Minutes Played: 47)
