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After a tough 4-1 loss to the Timmins Majors earlier in the day, the Soo U16 Greyhounds rebounded with a gritty 4-2 victory over the Sudbury U18 Wolves on Thursday, March 13th, at the 2025 GNU18HL Playoff Tournament at McIntyre Arena in Timmins, Ontario. The Greyhounds’ resilience was on full display as they erased an early deficit and battled back for the win.
The Wolves struck first at 6:36 of the opening period, as Noah Lafrance rifled a wrist shot from the top of the left faceoff circle past Soo netminder Tanner Carriere, giving Sudbury a 1-0 lead. Hudson Goulet and Denver Mulligan picked up the assists on Lafrance’s goal. However, the Greyhounds quickly responded on the power play, with Wyatt Jarratt scoring at 19:23 to tie the game 1-1. Jarratt took a pass from Finlay Escasa behind the net and slid the puck under Sudbury goaltender Declan McNamara for his first goal of the tournament. Jacob Vincent also assisted on the goal.
With just 11 seconds remaining in the period, Escasa gave the Greyhounds their first lead of the game, scoring a beautiful goal over McNamara’s glove. Brett Archambault and Anthony Carbone registered the assists, sending the Soo into the first intermission up 2-1.
The momentum continued into the second period as the Greyhounds extended their lead to 3-1 at 7:36. Anthony Carbone fired a wrist shot from just inside the left blue line, which was tipped by Finlay Carlson between the faceoff circles, fluttering past McNamara. Connor Belanger added the other assist on Carlson’s first goal of the tournament.
In the third period, the Wolves made things interesting early. Just eight seconds into the period, Sudbury capitalized on a power play when Cameron Vekhala backhanded a pass from behind the net to Drake Taylor, who scored to bring the Wolves within one at 3-2. Xander Strojny assisted on Taylor’s goal.
However, the Greyhounds sealed the win with a critical goal at 25 seconds past the halfway mark of the third. Nico Bossio followed his teammate Nathan Watts to the Wolves’ net and pounced on a rebound to give the Soo a 4-2 lead, which would hold up for the remainder of the game.
With the victory, the U16 Greyhounds improved their record in the tournament, and now look ahead to their next matchup. The Greyhounds will meet the Timmins Majors at 12:00 p.m on Friday, March 14th, while the Sudbury Wolves will take on the U18 Greyhounds at 9:30 a.m at McIntyre Arena.
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