After 535 days without no Ontario Hockey League action, the Soo Greyhounds hosted the Sudbury Wolves in the first exhibition game of the 2021 – 2022 season for the Greyhounds at the Memorial Gardens in an afternoon matinee on Sunday, September 5th.
At the 3:46 mark of the opening period, Greyhound forward Landen Hookey fires a wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle to find the back over Wolves goaltender Mitchell Weeks blocker to give the hosts a 1 – 0 lead. A pair of defensemen of Andrew Gibson and Jacob Holmes added the helpers on Hookey’s goal. On a Soo turnover and Kocha Delic all alone in front of Greyhound netminder Charlie Schenkel net, Delic sinks the tying goal for Sudbury with a Wolves unassisted goal with 86 seconds remaining in the first. With a giveaway in the Greyhound end, Quentin Musty picks up a loose pack to slide the go-ahead goal under a sprawling Schenkel to give the visitors a 2 – 1 lead 52 seconds into the middle frame. With a cross crease pass from Kosta Manikis, Sudbury’s Ryan Smith rifles the Wolves third past Schenkel 7:20 into the period. Seventeen seconds later Evan Konyen scores the fourth for Sudbury after two on one pass from Jack Thompson bring the lead to 4 – 1. Musty added the other assist on Konyen’s goal.
Closing the gap for two for the Soo, forward Justin Cloutier catches a pass from behind Weeks’ net from Kalvyn Watson at 3:39 to send the Greyhounds into the second period down by only two. 2:42 into the final period, Ethan Montroy sends a pass to forward Jordan D’Intino from the right of Weeks’ net to pull the Soo within one. Sault Ste Marie native Connor Toms contributed on D’Intino’s goal. 11 seconds past the halfway mark of the third, Nick Grazia sends a cross ice pass to David Goyette to score the Wolves fifth with a goal over Greyhound netminder Samuel Ivanov. 22 seconds later, the Wolves were back at with their sixth of the game at 9:49 with Ethan Larmand skating across Ivanov’s crease to bring the lead to 6 – 3. Nolan Collins and Giordano Biondi notched the assists on Larmand’s goal. At 9:09 of the third, Ivanov slips in his own crease for Jack Thompson to fire a slapshot from the right blueline into a Soo empty net. Joshua Hoover and Alex Assadourian had the helpers on Thompson’s goal.
With the Wolves on a powerplay, Biondi picks up Ryan Smith rebound off of Ivanov to slide Sudbury’s eighth under Ivanov at 15:24. Larmand added the other contributor on Biondi’s goal. With the Soo on a powerplay and Marco Mignosa on the left goal line of Weeks’, the Greyhound forward sinks the Soo fourth of the game for the final goal of the game at 17:01. Watson and Toms had the assists on Mignosa’s goal. Charlie Schenkel and Samuel Ivanov shared the netminding duties between the pips for the Soo with Schenkel stopping six of ten while Ivanov turned away 21 of 25 in the Greyhounds 8 – 4 loss to the visiting Wolves. Sudbury Mitchell Weeks’ earned the win with making 43 saves in the Wolves win in Sault Ste Marie.
Next exhibition action for the Greyhounds will be September 25th when the Soo host the visiting Sudbury Wolves in a 7:07 p.m puck drop at the Memorial Gardens.
Photo: Bob Davies
