Photo Eric Verbonac

Needing a win to continue their chance at the 2022 U18 AAA Central Region Championships, the (1-3) Soo Greyhounds took to the ice on Friday, April 8th in Toronto, Ontario in game five of the week against the (1-3) Guelph Gryphons. The Greyhounds were coming off a day four 9 – 2 loss to the Nepean Raiders.

With traffic in front of Greyhound netminder Charlie Burns, Gryphon Will Elliott finds the back of the Soo net behind at 6:18 of the first to give Guelph a 1 – 0 lead. Austen Pomerleau had the helper on Elliott’s goal. At 6:11 of the second period all alone between the faceoff circles in the Gryphons’ zone, Lincoln Moore fires a snapshot past Guelph goaltender Hayden Sabourin to pull the Greyhounds even 1 – 1. Affiliate player Hudson Chitaroni and Carmine Perna had the assists on Moore’s tying goal. Ethan Yantha finds the back of the Soo net through Burns’ five hole for the Gryphons go-ahead goal at 15:08. Madden MacDougall drew the lone contributor on Yantha’s powerplay goal from the left faceoff circle. With 3:15 remaining in the period, Greyhound Callum McAuley skates across the Guelph blueline to fire a wrist shot over Hayden Sabourin’s right shoulder from between the faceoff circles to send the Soo into the second intermission tied at 2 – 2. Evan Roach notched the helper on McAuley’s tying goal.

57 seconds before the midway mark of the third, Madden MacDougall comes out of the penalty box to catch a pass from Gryphon Ethan Yantha to skate across the blueline to rifle Guelph’s third of the game behind Burns to give Guelph a 3 – 2 lead. With 3:31 remaining the Greyhounds 2021 – 2022 season, Ryan Tait seals Soo’s championship fate with eliminating the Greyhounds from a semi-final berth with the Gryphons for the game to give Guelph a 4 – 2 win to advance to a 2022 U18 AAA Central Region Championships contest. Madden MacDougall registered his third point of the game on Tait’s insurance goal.

Greyhound coach Jamie Henderson told Saultsports that “as a coaching staff we’re so proud of these kids they gave it everything they had today. With eleven 2006 and 2007’s in the lineup it was a tall task today to beat a U18 team we had some great chances we just couldn’t capitalize on our power play opportunities and ultimately that was the difference. It’s been a great week we had some players really step up and they competed so hard.”

It’s tough to see any season come to an end but these young men have accomplished so much, and they have bright futures in hockey and beyond hockey more importantly with the way they conduct themselves on and off the ice,” added Henderson.