Tough test for U18 Hounds
Fresh from a tournament appearance in Peterborough, the surging Soo Jr. Greyhounds are back home this weekend for a pair of games including one against the second seed team in the Great North Under 18 Hockey League.
The U18 Jr. Hounds are home to the Timmins Majors on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. before playing host to the Sudbury Under 16 Wolves on Sunday at 2 p.m. Both league matches are slated for John Rhodes Community Centre.
Timmins sports a record of 15-5-1 and trails only the league leading Sudbury Under 18 Wolves, who have a mark of 16-5-2. The Majors do have two games in hand on the U18 Wolves. Timmins features league scoring leader Ian Lachance, who has 20 goals, 27 assists, 47 points as well as 2008 birth year forward sensation Edan Etheridge, who has put the puck in the net 16 times.
As for the Jr. Greyhounds, they have won five straight games and with a record of 8-10-2, have moved into fifth place among the seven teams of the Great North.
Seb Dos Reis leads the U18 Hounds in scoring with eight goals, 16 assists, 24 points. Up next are 2008 birth year rookies Danny MacDonald with 10 goals, 10 assists, 20 points and Espen Escasa with 6-13-19 numbers. Rounding out the top five scorers for the U18 Hounds are Coulson Bell with seven goals, seven assists, 14 points and Griffin Albert with 6-17-13 totals.
The U18 Hounds also feature one of the more under-rated players in the Great North in 2007 birth year forward Sam Caruso. The 6-foot-1, 160 pound Caruso has modest offensive totals of five goals, four assists, nine points in 20 games but at least one Ontario Hockey League general manager has the high IQ forward on his watch list. The later developing Caruso had never played at the AAA level before this season.
Between the pipes, veteran goalie A.J. Borrelli has a 2.73 goals against average and two shutouts in 752 minutes of action.