OHL Soo Greyhounds

Hounds Clinch Western Conference with Win over Plymouth

March 13, 2015 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Soo Greyhounds News Release


SAULT STE. MARIE, ON- With two points collected on Friday Night, the Soo Greyhounds officially cliched the top spot in the Western Conference for when the OHL Playoffs begin.

Holding the Plymouth Whalers to a single goal against also brought the club to fifty-one wins on the season so far.

"I thought we were fine. A lot of turnovers I didn't like in bad areas, unnecessary play. We didn't give up a lot (shots, quality chances)" started Greyhounds Head Coach Sheldon Keefe.

"Overall it was a good game and some challenging circumstances. Remaining games are challenging circumstances to keep our guys mentally in it. To win the way we did, one goal against, limit their chances and shots I"m happy with that. It wasn't a great game" he added.

After opening the first period with an early man advantage the Hounds were victim of close chances with both resulting on shots off the post.

HAYDEN VERBEEK used his speed up the right wing, after the power play expired, before finding the right post behind Whaler net minder Zack Bowman before BRYAN MOORE found iron just over five minutes in.

SERGEY TOLCHINSKY finished off a feed from MICHAEL BUNTING, and finished off a pretty play from the left of the goal at the nine minute mark to open the scoring with his 27th goal of the season.

BRANDON HALVERSON then denied Victor Crus Rydberg with a pad save midway through the period preserving the one goal lead.

Plymouth would even the score just twelve seconds into a power play, at 14:35.

Sonny Milano fired home his 21st goal of the year for the visitors, beating Halverson glove side to make it a 1-1 game.

And while a bouncing puck avoided the back of the net in the second half of the period, the Hounds would skate through twenty minutes with a 2-1 lead thanks to ZACH SENYSHYN.

The Nepean, ON product skated from centre ice up the right wing beating the defence man and then cutting to the net where he tucked it low past Bowman for the lead through the first period.

Plymouth looked to even the score again early in the second with just over two minutes off the clock, Victor Crus Rydberg took a feed from the corner and one-timed a shot off the crossbar, leaving the Hounds still in the lead.

Head Coach Sheldon Keefe utilized his team's timeout just 3:43 into the second period and right after his team responded with a chance that went off the left arm of Bowman keeping things at a one goal game.

MICHAEL BUNTING recorded his team-leading 35th goal of the season at 6:18 to stake the Hounds to a 3-1 lead.

While down on one knee in the corner, SERGEY TOLCHINSKY fed BUNTING a pass in the slot who fired a one-time shot home for the two goal cushion.

Plymouth would skate on the man advantage on three consecutive occasions in the second period and it would be BRANDON HALVERSON preserving things for the Hounds.

Both Whaler opportunities came off the stick of Mathew Campagna, as on one occasion the Hounds net minder robbed the Whaler forward and on the other got a piece of the shot, which appeared to hit off the iron preserving the two goal cushion.

"He was our best penalty killer today. He was strong and shown he's a good goaltender and ready and we're really happy with Halvy's play and how he's approached things here" said Keefe of his net minder.

"It's been a really long stretch here with him playing really good hockey" he continued.

The two teams traded off chances in the final minute while the Hounds continued to lead 3-1.

After HAYDEN VERBEEK (2:12 in) sent himself in on a breakaway and tried to slip the puck through his legs to beat Bowman, it would be HALVERSON facing Campagna yet again one-on-one this time, and would close the bottom of the net keeping things at bay.

COLTON WHITE would increase the lead to 4-1 at the 8:20 mark beating the Whaler defence up the left wing before cutting to the net and backhanding a nice shot to the glove side for the three goal lead.

One minute and twenty-seconds later, while on the power play, BLAKE SPEERS set-up NICK RITCHIE one-timed home his 25th goal of the year, 11th as a Hound, from the circle to round out the game's scoring.

GUSTAV BOURAMMAN picked up the assist, his second of the night.

The victory improved the Hounds overall record to 51-12-0-2, good for 104 points and guaranteed them top spot in the Western Conference, while increasing their lead to three points in the overall OHL standings over the Oshawa Generals.

(Oshawa holds two games in hand over the Hounds).

"I think home ice is overrated. We had it last year too in the two series we played and lost Game 1 in both series we played. So it is overrated. But it's nice, you have to play 68 games, in this case 65, if you're going to do that you want to finish as high as you can, do as well as you can, to finish 1st is an accomplishment" explained Keefe when asked about clinching the Conference's top seed.

"It's not THE accomplishment. I'm proud of the guys. It's a nice feather in the cap for the organization, for the fans, and it allows us to really turn the page completely focus on playoffs here the remainder three games and practices that we have and get ready to take a run at "the" accomplishment" he ended.

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