Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos

The fourth place (18-12-0-2-1) Soo U18 Greyhounds hit the highway for their final 2023 – 2024 three regular GNU18HL games with a stop in New Liskeard and Sudbury over the March 8th to 10th weekend with two games against the third place (19-13-0-1) New Liskeard Cubs. Both the Cubs and Greyhounds headed into final regular season action with 39 points each with New Liskeard having one more regular season win. The Greyhounds rounded out their weekend with a stop in Sudbury to meet the first place (24-8-0-3) Sudbury U18 Wolves on March 10th.

Soo Greyhound assistant coach/general manager Trevor Zachary told Saultsports that “in a nut shell we started the trip 13 hours on the bus Friday. After sitting for three hours at a road closure only 25 kilometres outside of New Liskeard we had to turn the bus around and head to North Bay and up through Quebec, to finally get to New Liskeard Friday night. The Friday night game was postponed so we ended up playing two games Friday winning 4-3 and 6-3. Both games our team brought energy, execution, and a relentless forecheck causing turnovers and capitalizing on our chances. Goaltending was excellent and defensively we held New Liskeard to only a few good scoring chances.”

“Game three of the weekend on Sunday we simply ran out of gas, we are not making excuses, but three games in 24 hours is difficult at any level,” added Zachary.

Zachary also stated that “when we took the team over at the start of November 2023 we were sitting in last place. We finished the season winning 17 of our final 21 games and finished third overall out of seven teams. We’ll prepare accordingly over the next week or so for the playoffs and the boys will be ready to compete for a GNML Championship.”

The Greyhounds will now prepare for the March 22nd to 24th weekend in Sudbury for the round robin GNU18HL Playoff Tournament to see who join the Soo Greyhounds in Sault Ste Marie at the 2024 AAA U18 OHF Championships as the NOHA representative from April 8th to 14th.

Sunday, March 10th (2:30 p.m)
Period 1
(01:30) Sudbury Wolves – Corey Lacroix (Cameron Vehkala, Lucas Antonioni)
(06:03) Soo Greyhounds – Camden Cowan (Lucas DiBerardino, Griffin Albert)
(00:14) Sudbury Wolves – Bryden Shank (Carter Drigo, Ryan Daze)

Period 2
(19:01) Sudbury Wolves – Carter Drigo (Bryden Shank)
(15:01) Sudbury Wolves – Bryden Shank (Ryan Daze, Carter Drigo)
(10:57) Sudbury Wolves – Lucas Antonioni (Aleksander Duguay, Felix St.Onge)
(09:46) Sudbury Wolves – Corey Lacroix (Cameron Vehkala, Keynan Kydd)
(14:44) Sudbury Wolves – Bryden Shank (Carter Drigo, Ryan Daze)

Goaltenders
Soo Greyhounds – Nick Marson/AJ Borrelli (Shared Minutes Played: 60)
Sudbury Wolves – Jackson Curran (Minutes Played: 60)

Saturday, March 9th (4:00 p.m)
Soo Greyhounds (6) @ (3) New Liskeard Cubs
Period 1
(08:47) New Liskeard Cubs – Mason Brownlee (Power Play)
(07:38) Soo Greyhounds – Jevon Johnson (Espen Escasa, Samuel Caruso)
(01:34) Griffin Albert (Short Handed)

Period 2
(17:40) Samuel Caruso (Coulson Bell, Koen Kurylo)
(05:48) Lucas DiBerardino (Wyatt Leblanc, Liam Watson) (Power Play)
(05:21) New Liskeard Cubs – Mason Brownlee (Mikaleb Blier)

Period 3
(16:27) Soo Greyhounds – Griffin Albert (Cole Wreggitt, Wyatt Leblanc) (Power Play)
(12:06) New Liskeard Cubs – Ryan Miller (Maverick Hill, Cameron Olsen)
(00:04) Soo Greyhounds – Camden Cowan (Nathan Dupuis)

Goaltenders
Soo Greyhounds – AJ Borrelli (Minutes Played: 60)
New Liskeard Cubs – Brett Ruddy (Minutes Played: 60)

Saturday, March 9th (11:30 a.m)
Period 1
(10:36) New Liskeard Cubs – Logan Rivard (Mikaleb Blier, Maverick Hill) (Power Play)

Period 2
(19:34) Soo Greyhounds – Liam Watson (Stosh Schultz, Wyatt Leblanc) (Power Play)
(16:58) New Liskeard Cubs – Owen Norris (Ryan Miller, Will Sloggett)
(16:43) New Liskeard Cubs – Logan Rivard (Cameron Olsen, Will Sloggett)
(15:18) Soo Greyhounds – Espen Escasa (Stosh Schultz)
(09:35) Soo Greyhounds – Samuel Gravel (Griffin Albert, Camden Cowan)

Period 3
(05:20) Soo Greyhounds – Wyatt Leblanc (Nathan Dupuis)

Goaltenders
Soo Greyhounds – Nick Marson (Minutes Played: 60)
New Liskeard Cubs – Brett Ruddy (Minutes Played: 19)/Caleb Shuker (Minutes Played: 40)