The Soo Bantam Greyhounds used an early third period goal and their composure the rest of the way to secure a tournament opening win at the 23rd Annual Steel City International Hockey Tournament.
The Greyhounds, competing in the AAA Bantam Minor division, received the winning goal from the stick of Kevin Closs early in the third period to secure a 3-2 victory over the Marquette American Legion on Thursday afternoon at the Pee Wee Arena.
"Goaltending and defense is where it all starts for us and we are pretty solid back there," said Greyhounds head coach Domenic Deluca Jr. "We really rely on them to make that first pass out of our zone and go from there. We create a lot of chances but we are having trouble finishing right now. We could have easily been up three or four goals in the first period."
Anthony Colizza of the Greyhounds opened the scoring the first period to give the locals a 1-0 lead.
Marquette rallied to take the lead in the second when Joey Enright converted a pass on a two-on-one break to tie the score at 1-1. Just 25 seconds later, the Greyhounds suffered from a bout of miscommunication in their own zone which allowed Chad Rose to fire a turnover into an open net to give the Legion a 2-1 lead.
Dylan King tied the game late in the second period on the power play to tie the score at 2-2.
After the Closs goal, the Greyhounds managed to maintain their composure to hold onto the lead. With the referee allowing the players to play, Marquette made some questionable hits on the Greyhound players which could have easily opened the door for the locals to retaliate.
But the Hounds turned away from any rough play down the stretch and used a solid defensive effort and some big saves from goaltender Greg McAllister to claim the win.
"I thought they took a few runs at us in the third but we managed to stay composed. This team has been absolutely amazing discipline wise. When we ask them to hold back they do and it has really helped us win games in the third period and this one is no exception," said Deluca.
Although both teams compete in the same division in the Northern International Hockey League, they have yet to play each other this season. Marquette will visit the Soo, who sit at 13-2-1 in NIHL play, later in the month for a pair of league games.
The Greyhounds are back in action on Friday at 3:30 p.m. at the Rankin Arena to take on Michigan's Calumet Rotary. The locals finish the round robin portion of the tournament with a pair of games on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. against the Michigan Soo Storm at the McMeeken Centre and 8:30 p.m. at the Pee Wee against the Green Bay Gamblers.