Hounds deflate Saginaw's spirit

The Soo Greyhounds took their first step in the right direction under new head coach Craig Hartsburg.

The Soo Greyhounds ended a two-game losing streak with a more spirited effort by defeating the Saginaw Spirit 5-1 in front of 2,710 fans on Sunday night in Ontario Hockey League action at Memorial Gardens.

The win for the Greyhounds was the first in two games under Hartsburg, who replaced Marty Abrams on Thursday. The win was the first in the OHL for Hounds goaltender Kyle Gajewski.

"I thought we had a much better effort and a much smarter effort," said Hartburg. "We cut down on a lot of turnovers and we were a lot better in our own end. It's a small step but it is a step and that's the way we have to look at it."

The Hounds lost Hartsburg's debut on Friday 8-3 to the Windsor Spitfires.

The Greyhounds were led offensively by the newly-formed trio of Tyler Kennedy, Blair Jarrett and Jason Pitton, which scored the team's first four goals. All three were also selected as game stars.

"We kept the focus on defense and that's were we have to keep our focus," said Hartsburg. "If we can cut down the scoring chances and goals against, we have a chance of getting better.

"I thought we were stronger on the puck and stronger on the loose pucks but when we did come up with the puck we put it in safer places than just throwing it out into the middle of the rink.

"When you throw the puck blind into the middle of the rink, it usually comes right back down your throat and we did a much better job of not doing that tonight."

Saginaw opened the scoring 8:04 into the contest as Sean Courtney fired a loose puck in the slot past Gajewski.

The Greyhounds evened the score at 1-1 and generated more emotion when Jarrett notched his third of the season at 17:13. The overage forward converted a loose puck past goaltender Mike Brown while standing alone at the side of the net.

With more energy in the second period, the Hounds jumped ahead 2-1 just 41 seconds in as Pitton scored his third of the year. Pitton added to lead at 5:01 with his second of the game on the power play.

Kennedy increased the lead to 4-1 as the local product swarmed on a loose puck in front of Brown and roofed a shot into the open net. The Hounds outshot the Spirit in the period 23-6.

In the third period, Jeff Larsh concluded the scoring with his fifth of the season 5:22 in, beating Spirit goaltender Aaron Rock, who replaced Brown at the start of the period.

Gajewski kicked aside 18 of 19 shots in the win while the Greyhounds peppered the Spirit goaltending duo with 50 shots.

Pitton added a pair of assists while Kenedy recorded three assists and Jarrett one.

"Friday is a game we would just like to forget," said Hartsburg. "As coaches, we saw things in the game that we didn't do very well but tonight I thought we saw more of the team we can be but this is a very small step."

After a week of practise, the Hounds will hit the road for three games in three nights. The Hounds are in Sudbury on Friday at 7:30 p.m., Barrie on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Mississauga on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Next home action for the Greyhounds is Wednesday, Nov. 3 against the Sudbury Wolves.