Hounds struggles continue with fifth straight loss

The Soo Greyhounds suddenly find themselves in a position where they are searching for ways to win as the team continues to struggle.

The Greyhounds dropped their fifth consecutive game on Wednesday night with a 4-2 loss to the Sudbury Wolves in Ontario Hockey League action in front of 2,256 fans at Memorial Gardens.

The win for Wolves ended a season long drought in which the team had failed to register a road win in 14 outings.

The loss for the Greyhounds dropped the team back to the .500 mark at 16-16-1-1 for 34 points to sit in third place in the West Division and seventh overall in the Western Conference.

"I thought we worked hard and we did everything we could but we couldn't score and their goaltender played well again tonight," said Greyhounds head coach Marty Abrams.

"But we're back to where we were in September where we're finding ways to lose instead of finding ways to win. It gets tougher from here and there is no question that we are behind the eight ball here going into the Christmas break."

The Greyhounds, playing their league leading 34th game of the season, allowed the Wolves to jump on the board with an early power play goal and instill some confidence into a team with a struggling power play and woeful road record.

Former Greyhound Matt Maccarone, who later added two assists, notched the power play marker for the Wolves, who entered the game with a paltry seven per cent success rate with the man advantage.

The Greyhounds were lucky to escape the first period down by one as the Wolves nearly opened a big lead but saw two quality scoring chances slam off the post behind Hounds goaltender Jakub Cech, who made several big saves in the game.

The Wolves carried the 1-0 lead into the third period and then built on it as Sean Langdon, left standing alone at the side of the net, converted a quick cross ice pass into the open net.

Colt King put the Greyhounds back into the game just 1:06 later on the power play as the rugged overage forward beat Wolves goaltender Patrick Ehelechner to cut the lead to 2-1.

Rafal Martynowski put the Wolves ahead 3-1 just seven seconds before the Greyhounds answered back with Jeff Doyle's 11th goal of the season with 5:33 remaining in regulation time. Adam McQuaid completed the scoring with an empty net goal in the dying seconds.

Jeff Carter, who departs on Thursday for the national junior team selection camp in Kitchener, recorded two assists for the Greyhounds. The Hounds do not expect to call-up any extra bodies for the weekend.

"(Carter's departure) is what makes this loss even tougher," said Abrams. "We needed these two points in his last game around and there is nobody that is going to replace the 25 minutes per game and the production he puts out. We'd be kidding ourselves if we think someone's going to fill his shoes."

Wolves coach Mike Foligno was happy his team was able to shake their winless streak on the road and be reward for the team's improved play as of late.

"If you look at our last 10 to 15 games we've been playing harder and smarter and I really think there were some games we should've won on the road. But we have a young team here with two 16 year-olds on defense so it's going to take time and we knew gong in we would have to be patient and demanding at the same time," said Foligno.

"I think this win kind of gets the monkey off our back especially for the guys who maybe worried about it. This will put the guys in better frame of mind knowing that they can do it and say to themselves 'let's go do it again'."

The Wolves peppered the Greyhounds with 38 shots on net while Ehelechner, named the game's first star, kicked aside 28 of 30 shots.

Sean Stefanski, another former Hound, was scratched from the Sudbury line-up after suffering a knee injury last weekend.

Before the game, the Greyhounds honoured the late Bert Templeton with a moment of silence. Templeton succumbed to cancer on Friday after a legendary coaching career in the OHL that ended last season with the Wolves.

The Greyhounds have little time to regroup as the Windsor Spitfires invade the Gardens on Friday for a 7:30 p.m. start. The Hounds will complete their three-game homestand on Sunday against the Owen Sound Attack at 2 p.m.

In other OHL action on Wednesday, the Barrie Colts entertained the Sportsnet television audience with two goals late in the third period and then an overtime winner to rally from a 5-3 deficit and claim a 6-5 win over Owen Sound. Cory Stillman scored the tying goal, the winner and assisted on two others while Sault native Patrick Jarrett scored once for the Attack.

Eric Tobia of Belleville and Brad Topping of Brampton combined to stop 59 of 61 shots in net as the Bulls and Battalion played to a 1-1 tie.