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 Soo Greyhounds

From 0 to 110 in Sixty-Eight Games

March 22, 2015 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Soo Greyhounds News Release


SAULT STE. MARIE, ON- Excellerating from the starting line back on September 27th, this year's edition of the Soo Greyhounds has been one for the franchise records books.

West Division, Western Conference and OHL Regular Season Championships were all in the rearview mirror heading into Sunday afternoon against the Kitchener Rangers.

But as the 2014-15 regular season closed it's schedule, a couple more feathers would be put in the caps of #HoundPower following their 3-0 victory.

For goaltender BRANDON HALVERSON his 40th win set him as the winningest goalie in a single season (surpassing John Vanbesbrouck and Kyle Gajewski), while his 6th shoutout of the year tied him for that honour with Matt Murray.

As an entire club, the Hounds 110 points brings them to the point of the winningest team in Soo Greyhounds franchise history surpassing the 1984-85 edition of the club (109 points).

"It's a nice thing that's going to stick there and hang around. It will be this team, and this group of guys forever. People will talk about this team like they have the previous teams from the 80's so that's a nice thing" commented Head Coach Sheldon Keefe when asked about the most points accomplishment post game.

The visiting Rangers had three players who did not make the trip (G Jake Paterson, D Max Iafrate and F Ryan MacInnis) as the game was a formality in concluding their regular season campaign.

First period of action would go scoreless while both teams neared opening scoring around the midway point.

With 9:40 to go, ZACH SENYSHYN broke around the Kitchener defence before putting a shot off Dawson Carty and then iron in the scoreless period.

While seconds later Connor Bunnaman rung a shot off the crossbar for the visitors.

Hounds outshot Kitchener 12-5 in the period.

Early in the second period, ANTHONY DEANGELO's 1st shot was stopped before the rebound came to GABE GUERTLER who teed up a slapshot into the open net for his 27th of the season, and a 1-0 Greyhound lead at 1:19.

MEDRIC MERCIER, who played primarily forward on the afternoon (alongside HAYDEN VERBEEK and MAC HOLLOWELL) was set-up by a patient DARNELL NURSE, only to have Carty come up with a glove stop in close keeping the game at a single goal.

Fast forward to the middle portion of the period when BRANDON HALVERSON would make this toughest of his 18 saves of the afternoon.

A rebound came out in front to former Greyhound David Miller, and the Hounds net minder sprawled the pad to turn him aside.

The Hounds grabbed a two goal lead at 12:31 when JARED MCCANN took the puck to the net forcing the first stop before MICHAEL BUNTING was there to lift home his team-leading 37th goal of the season and a 2-0 Greyhound lead.

Back-to-back breakaways, one by NICK RITCHIE and the other by SERGEY TOLCHINSKY, both in the final three and a half minutes were denied as the Hounds 2-0 lead held through two periods of play.

After an early power play in the third period expired, the Hounds increased their lead even strength.

NICK RITCHIE notched his 5th goal in the last four games, and 29th of the year, at 1:39 with assists to DARNELL NURSE and BLAKE SPEERS to see the Hounds take a 3-0 lead.

The two teams combined for 18 shots (11 SSM, 7 KIT) through the third period of play, as no other goals would be recorded before the Hounds capped off the regular season with their 54th win of the year.

The victory brought their regular season to 54-12-0-2, part of a 28-4 run since turning the page into 2015.

"I thought we played well. We have been on our guys about managing the puck well and making life easier. We wanted to try to make the game easier on ourselves today and not have to expend a lot of energy. We didn't have a chance to much an opportunity to rest guys, so we wanted to make it easier game on ourselves so managing the puck is very important in that" commented Keefe when asked about this afternoon specifically.

"I thought we did a nice job. The chances and shots against reflected the type of job we did.

"Obviously their line-up they dressed and the fact it's their third game this weekend helped that as well but we didn't do much to make things hard on ourselves and that was the goal going in" he added.

The Hounds will now take a day off the ice on Monday, only to come into the rink for a meeting with the coaching staff to set-up their week ahead.

"The last few weeks have really been tough to get through. It turned out to be a good thing and we got lucky in that different things popped up to kind of give the games some significance" started Keefe.

"But we've all head our eye towards the post-season so we get to close the book on this, it's been an excellent regular season and fun to be a part of. Now we get to into where it gets real fun" said Keefe when asked about his wishes to just see the post-season underway.

ATTENDANCE- 4,286

RED STAR THREE STARS OF THE GAME

1- SSM, Brandon Halverson

2- SSM, Darnell Nurse

3- KIT, Dawson Carty

To view the complete game sheet CLICK HERE.

UP NEXT;

The Greyhounds open up their Western Conference Quarter-Final playoff series with the Saginaw Spirit this coming weekend.

Game 1 is set for Friday, March 27th with Game 2 going twenty four hours later on Saturday, March 28th. Both games begin at 7:07 p.m.

Full Series Schedule is as follows:

GM 1Friday, March 27 @ SSM (7:07 p.m.)

GM 2Saturday, March 28 @ SSM (7:07 p.m.)

GM 3Tuesday, March 31 @ SAG (7:11 p.m.)

GM 4Thursday, April 2 @ SAG (7:11 p.m.)

GM 5*Friday, April 3 @ SSM (7:07 p.m.)

GM 6*Sunday, April 5 @ SAG (4:00 p.m.)

GM 7*Tuesday, April 7 @ SSM (7:07 p.m.)

* indicated "if necessary"

Tickets for home games 1 & 2 are on-sale at the Essar Centre Box Office (10 am. to 5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to game time on game days) or you can purchase online at www.essarcentre.ca or by phone at 1.866.775.9422.


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