Hisey leads Erie past Greyhounds
By Ken Hilderley The Erie Otters used a third period surge to defeat the Soo Greyhounds on Sunday afternoon.
Taking the play to the Greyhounds in the third period, the Otters scored three goals, two of which on the power play, to capture a 6-4 decision in front of 2,299 fans at Memorial Gardens.
With the loss, the Greyhounds fall to 0-1-1 during their Ontario Hockey League season opening home stand. The win was the first for the Otters after being shutout 4-0 by the Sudbury Wolves in Friday's opener.
Erie's Rob Hisey, playing his first game of the season, haunted his former club with two goals and an assist. Brad Bonello also had a strong game for the Otters with four assists.
Greyhounds head coach Marty Abrams felt his team took too many penalties which eventually caught up to them in the third period.
"We took too many penalties today and it wore us down. We had to kill a lot of penalties and we didn't have a lot of jump after that to play five on five. We didn't have enough energy in the third period to compete and they took it to us in the last half of the game," said Abrams.
Hisey opened the scoring in the first period after knocking in a loose puck from the slot past goaltender Kevin Druce.
The Greyhounds responded as Jeff Larsh scored his second goal of the season by firing a shot between the legs of goaltender Josh Disher off a feed from Tyler Kennedy behind the net. Matt Puntureri put the Greyhounds ahead 2-1 after one period after scoring on a Matt Maccarone pass from behind the net.
In the second period, Chris Campoli tied the game for Erie before overage Sean Stefanski tipped in his first goal of the season on the power play to give the Hounds a 3-2 lead.
Erie then scored four answered goals with Derek Bagshaw, Ryan O'Marra with two and Hisey providing the offense. Hisey's goal and O'Marra's second were scored with a man advantage.
Michael Krelove completed the scoring with a goal for the Hounds, who were out shot 33-27, late in the third period. Kennedy totaled a pair of assists.
Erie played the game minus overages Matt Lynn and Alex Karaulchuck. Also scratched were import players Tomas Galasek and Ilya Yakovlev.
The Greyhounds played without veteran defenseman Mike Looby, who remains day to day with a knee injury. Overage defenseman and local product Ryan MacKay was again caught in the numbers game and was a scratch for the second straight game.
Jeff Carter returned to Sault Ste. Marie on Sunday after an extended stay at the Philadelphia Flyers NHL training camp but did not arrive in time to play. Carter will suit up on Friday as the team hits the road for a pair of games this weekend.
The Greyhounds visit Kitchener on Friday before meeting Owen Sound on Saturday. Game times are 7:30 p.m.
In other OHL games on Sunday, Sudbury defeated Ottawa 6-4, Mississauga beat Guelph 7-3 and Brampton edged Toronto St. Michael's 3-2.
On Saturday, Saginaw blanked Windsor 5-0, Owen Sound and Belleville skated to a 6-6 tie, Peterborough edged Sarnia 4-3 in overtime, Oshawa beat Plymouth 5-2 while Kingston and Barrie played to a 3-3 draw.
In OHL news on Friday, Kitchener Rangers defenseman Andre Benoit tied an OHL record for the most points by a defenseman in a game with eight in the team's 10-4 win over Plymouth. With the four goal and four assist effort, Benoit joins former Niagara Falls Thunder star defenseman Bryan Fogarty, who accomplished the feat twice.