Hounds close regular season with shootout loss (video)

The Soo Greyhounds were determined to finish the regular season on top of their game.

After securing fifth place in the Ontario Hockey League's western conference with a 1-0 overtime win over the Plymouth Whalers on Friday, the Greyhounds were faced with the challenge of playing a meaningless game to close out the 68-game regular season schedule.

The Hounds put forth a decent effort but some sloppy play in the third period allowed the Sarnia Sting to tie the game late in regulation and then claim a 5-4 victory in a shootout on Saturday night at the Steelback Centre.

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The game for Sarnia was hardly meaningless as the Sting were battling the Guelph Storm for sixth spot in the conference.

With the two points, the Sting claim sixth place and will face the Kitchener Rangers in the first round of the playoffs while Guelph faces second seeded Plymouth and top seeded London will meet eighth seeded Owen Sound.

The Greyhounds grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Sean Jones and Matt Lyall.

But the Sting rebounded in the second period and tied the game quickly on goals by Brandon Mashinter 32 seconds in and Nick Tuzzolino at 4:04.

David Kuchejda's 25th goal of the season restored a Greyhound lead at 3-2 but Bobby Davey's first goal of year for the Sting tied the game once again 34 seconds later.

In the third period, Dustin Jeffrey gave the Hounds their third lead of the night at 11:45 but the Sting rallied to tie on a goal by Steven Stamkos with 3:14 remaining in regulation time.

In the shootout, Craig Voakes and Tomas Pospisil scored for the Sting while Cody Thornton and James Livingston of the Hounds were denied by Sarnia goaltender Parker Van Buskirk.

The game was a special one for Thornton, who was playing in his 328th career OHL regular season game. The fifth-year forward and team captain, who has missed only 12 games in that span, passes the old mark of 327 set by Nick Lees.

The team honoured Thornton in a special ceremony at centre ice before the start on the second period.

Matt Hache, who made big saves in the five minute overtime, was given the start in goal for the Hounds and faced 37 shots while Van Buskirk also faced 37 shots.

The Greyhounds will take the day off on Sunday for the team's annual awards luncheon and then gather at the Steelback Centre for practise on Monday in preparation for their best-of-seven conference quarterfinal series against the Saginaw Spirit.

The team will leave Thursday for games one and two on Friday and Saturday nights in Saginaw. Face off times for both games are 7:11 p.m.

The series will then shift to the Soo for games three and four on Tuesday, March 27 and Wednesday, March 28 at the Steelback Centre beginning at 7 p.m.

If necessary, a fifth game would be played in Saginaw on Friday, March 30, a sixth game in the Soo on Sunday, April 1 at 7 p.m. and a seventh game in Saginaw on Tuesday, April 3.

Elsewhere in the OHL playoff picture,

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