Greyhounds head into Christmas break on winning note (video)

The Soo Greyhounds are heading into the Christmas break on a high note and in a tie for top spot in the Ontario Hockey League’s West Division.

Rory Kerins was the overtime hero as the Greyhounds beat the Kitchener Rangers 4-3 in overtime Friday night at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium in the final game for the club before Christmas.

Kerins, who was on the ice for the overtime winner 24 hours earlier in a loss to the Windsor Spitfires, converted an opportunity in the final minute of extra time on Friday night to give the Greyhounds the win.

“He made it pretty clear he wanted that one,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said. “Body Language, emotions, the way he communicated with me on the bench, it was pretty obvious he was going to go on a mission there in overtime.”

Dean added that he felt Kerins was fatigued in the overtime period Thursday night against Windsor, adding that Dean felt he “overplayed my veteran guys” in the game.

“I put him in a tough spot in overtime there,” Dean added.

Dean said the first period of Friday’s game “tells the tale.”

“We fell off as the game went on and looked like a tired group, but that first period tells me a lot about our hockey club and our response after last night,” Dean added. “For the guys to come out like that, I was very happy.”

Kitchener coach Mike McKenzie was not pleased with the start for the Rangers in the game.

“I didn’t like our first period at all,” McKenzie said in an interview with RogersTV. “We were a little rusty. We hadn’t played since Saturday. We weren’t really ready for the drop of the puck. We knew we would be a little rusty, but not that rusty. I liked our effort bouncing back. We challenged the guys in between periods and they responded and played a pretty good last 40 minutes.”

Tye Kartye got the Greyhounds on the board just under six minutes into the game as he took a pass in the slot from Rory Kerins along the right side boards and beat Rangers starter Pavel Cajan stick side to open the scoring.

Jordan D’Intino made it 2-0 Greyhounds at 15:18 as he potted a rebound after Cajan stopped a redirection by Bryce McConnell-Barker seconds earlier.

Kitchener got on the board at 7:15 of the second period when Roman Schmidt entered the slot in the Sault zone, took a pass from Mike Petizian, and beat Greyhounds goaltender Tucker Tynan stick side.

Just over three minutes later, rookie defenceman Kirill Kudryavtsev made it 3-1 as he cut around the Kitchener net from the left wing and beat Cajan from the right side of the goal at 10:32.

The Rangers again cut the Greyhounds lead to one when Arber Xhekaj jumped on a loose puck in the right circle, moved into the slot and beat Tynan with a shot through a Greyhounds defender at 14:43.

The Rangers tied the game at three when a point shot by Xhekaj was deflected in traffic by Reid Valade past Tynan with 2:21 to go in regulation time setting the stage for Kerins’ overtime winner.

In the extra frame, Kerins moved into the Rangers zone took a short pass from Kartye, cut across the slot, found himself in the left faceoff circle and he beat Cajan with 16.2 seconds to go in the extra frame.

“It was a broken play in our end and Kartye got it, we had an odd-man rush, their back-checker caught up to Kartye so I decided to take the middle,” Kerins said of the goal. “

Dean called Friday’s win “big for moral.”

“To get four out of six points (in the past three games) with some of our more experienced players gone, it’s big for us and it shows out first-year players especially what they’re capable of,” Dean added.

Kerins called the game “a feel-good win.”

“We had a good first period and stuck with it all the way through,” Kerins added.

“It was a huge win,” Kartye added, calling the good start “a really big focus” on the heels of Thursday’s game.

Kerins, Kartye, and Kudryavtsev each had a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds.

Tynan made 39 saves for the Greyhounds in the win.

“That’s three games in a row that this poor guy has faced 40-plus shots and were used to having about 24 or 26 against,” Dean said. “That was a pretty special night by him.”

At the other end, Cajan stopped 34 shots for the Rangers.

Petizian finished the night with three assists for Kitchener.

The Greyhounds lost overage forward Cole MacKay to a lower-body injury late in the game.

Dean said following the game that details on the injury were limited.

The Greyhounds record stands at 15-9-2-0 thanks to the victory while the Rangers fall to 12-12-1-0.

With no games scheduled over the weekend, the Greyhounds return to action after the holiday, scheduled to return to the ice on Dec. 29 at home against the Sudbury Wolves. Puck drop at the GFL Memorial Gardens is set for 7:07 p.m.

OHL news and notes

On Friday, the OHL announced that the Flint Firebirds suspended all team activities as 11 members of the organization have tested positive for COVID-19.

All players and staff affected are currently asymptomatic of exhibiting mild symptoms.

Firebirds games against the Sarnia Sting on Friday and the Saginaw Spirit on Saturday, both on the road, were postponed as a result of the news.

Early Friday evening, the league also announced that a pair of Niagara IceDogs games had been postponed as well.

Niagara’s games on the road in Sudbury on Friday night and at home on Saturday against North Bay were postponed.

Thus far, 18 games have been postponed due to COVID-19 protocols and four teams – Sudbury, Erie, Owen Sound, and Flint – have suspended team activities at different times this season due to COVID-19.