It was a showdown of the NOJHL's top two teams in the standings. The Soo Jr. Greyhounds were left standing as they moved three points ahead of the second-place North Bay Skyhawks with a 6-3 victory last night at Memorial Gardens in Sault Ste. Marie.
Both teams were coming of Friday night wins as North Bay beat Blind River 12-0 and the Jr. Hounds beat Abitibi 6-1. Just 1 point separated the two teams in the standings heading into the game although the Skyhawks have played one less game.
The first period saw both teams get on the board with a pair of goals each. James Marcey scored his second goal of the season at 5:46 to open the scoring, but the Skyhawks tied the game just over a minute later on a nice cross-ice feed from Kyle Van Groningen to Adam Midgley who beat Jr. Hound goaltender Shane Bellini to tie the game.
The teams traded goals in the final 5 minutes of the period, on goals by Mark Evans of the Jr. Hounds and Jerome Briere of the Skyhawks, to keep the game tied heading into the second stanza.
The Jr. Hounds opened up in the second period and scored three goals before the period was half over to take a 5-2 lead as Josh Leddy scored twice in a span of just under 3 minutes, at 3:57 and 6:26, and Joey Coccimiglio scored at 9:17 to increase the lead to three.
Jerome Breire scored his second goal of the night for the Skyhawks at 11:09 on the power play, which was the third power play goal for the Skyhawks, to cut the Jr. Hounds lead to 5-3. In the third period the Jr. Hounds sealed the victory in fine fashion as Josh Leddy scored his third goal of the night and number 17 on the season just past the midway point of the period.
Jeff Rainville also added to his league leading point total with an assist in the second period to increase his point total to 39. Rainville leads Jr. Hounds linemate Joey Coccimiglio by 1 point in the scoring race as Coccimiglio picked up a goal and an assist in last night's game. Coccimiglio now has 38 points.
Shane Bellini got the start for the Jr. Hounds and stopped 16 shots in the win. Luc O'Shell stopped 34 shots in the loss, but made a number of big saves in the opening period to keep the game tied early.
Next action for the Jr. Hounds is on Nov. 14 when they travel to Chelmsford to take on the Rayside Balfour Sabrecats.
Next home action for the team is on Nov. 20 when the Blind River Beavers are in town.