The Soo Greyhounds have put themselves in a good position to capture the Ontario Hockey League west division championship.
Led by a three goal performance from captain Jeff Carter, the Greyhounds ran past the Plymouth Whalers 6-1 on Sunday night in front of 3,865 fans at Memorial Gardens.
The victory gives the Greyhounds a six point cushion over the Whalers for the division title with five games remaining in the regular season. The Windsor Spitfires remain alive nine points off the pace.
The Greyhounds have now won five consecutive games and are 10-1-2 since the beginning of February.
"You can't get too caught up in things and have to look ahead to the next game," said Greyhounds head coach Craig Hartsburg. "You try and build momentum so that when you do get to the playoffs, where ever you sit in the standings, you feel good about your game and that's what we have to do."
The Greyhounds opened the scoring 4:37 into the game when Chris Lawrence banged a loose puck past Whalers goaltender Ryan Nie. Brody Todd added to the lead with 3:00 remaining in the opening frame when he knocked a rebound past Nie on the power play.
Hounds goaltender Kyle Gajewski kept the Whalers, who outshot the Hounds 12-6 in the period, off the board in the first when several big saves. Gajewski made big stop on Whalers sniper John Mitchell and made two other quality stops from in close.
In the second period, the Hounds came out running and Carter took control of the game with a pair of goals.
Carter, who played the game with a full shield after receiving a cut to the face from a skate during the Hounds win in Sarnia on Friday, put the Greyhounds up 3-0 when his blast from a tough angle found its way past Nie, who was hugging the post on the play.
Just 1:14 later, Carter potted his second of the night with a blast from the top of the right faceoff circle which brought the Memorial Gardens faithful to their feet for a standing ovation.
Carter's second goal chased Nie from game in favour of Justin Garay.
In the third period, Carter notched the hat trick, his 34th goal of the season, on the power play and brought the crowd out of their seat for the second time.
Dan Collins spoiled Gajewski's shutout bid with a goal at 9:17 before Jason Pitton cleaned up a Tyler Kennedy rebound off the post to give the Hounds a 6-1 lead.
"We played a solid 60 minutes and our goaltending was good early in the game and that probably made the difference. Once we got going we were fine. We capitalized on our chances and they didn't and that is because of Gajewski," said Hartsburg.
Lawrence also had a strong game for the Hounds and recorded three assists for a four point night while Jordan Smith setup a pair.
The Hounds outshot the Whalers 30-29.
"We're getting a little bit of everything from everybody," said Hartsburg. "Carter's line has obviously done a great job, Kennedy's line has been consistently scoring goals for us, (Andrew) Desjardins's line has chipped in and Carter is the league's best fourth line centre and helps (Matt) Leszczynski and (Brandon) MacLean when he's out there plus our defense has been solid.
"But I still don't think we've played our best. I think this team still has to play better going down the stretch into the playoffs to win a round in the playoffs."
The game also featured four fights, including three in the third period, as Smith battled Gino Pisellini, Tyler Cuthbert faced Ryan Stephenson, Ryan McInerney tangled with Cory Tanaka and MacLean fought John Armstrong.
Greyhounds overage forward Reg Tomas sat out the last game of his league imposed 15-game suspension and will return to the lineup on Wednesday night when the Hounds host the Saginaw Spirit at 7 p.m. at Memorial Gardens.
Meanwhile, forward Andrew Gibbons remains out of the lineup with an infected hand.