Hounds await repeat Attack
Spring has sprung a repeat playoff pose from a year ago. Soo Greyhounds and Owen Sound Attack will again face off in an Ontario Hockey League, Western Conference, semi-final series.
Games 1 and 2 are slated for the Soo, tonight and Friday evening.
A year ago, the Attack ousted the Greyhounds four games to two in the second round, best-of-seven series.
This time around, the Greyhounds, as the no. 1 seed in the 20-team OHL, are cast as favourites, to not only fend off the Attack, but to eventually emerge as league playoff champions.
Still, Soo head coach Drew Bannister, who was an assistant with Owen Sound before taking the Greyhound job in 2015, is wary of the Attack.
“They’re a dangerous team,” Bannister told Postmedia. “I’m expecting a difficult series.”
To be sure, it has been a lethal Attack as of late.
Including a four-game sweep of the London Knights in the opening round of the playoffs, Owen Sound is on a 10-game winning streak. In fact, the Attack closed out the regular season with an armed-and-dangerous record of 22-4-1.
As the Greyhounds posted a league-best, regular-season record of 55-7-6, the Attack placed fourth in the Western Conference with a mark of 38-22-8.
Overall team and individual statistics favour the Soo and the Greyhounds have the edge between the pipes with Matthew Villalta a clear-cut choice to out-perform retread Olivier Lafreniere, who joined the Attack from the Ottawa 67’s in a mid-season trade.
Advantage Greyhounds, is a common refrain being heard inside and outside the OHL.
PHOTO: Soo Greyhounds bench boss Drew Bannister.
The retread goalie played well tonight.
He sure did.