McConnell-Barker Dominates in Hounds Win/It Looks Like Starlink Is the Way/Skye Is On Campus

Last night the Hounds reversed everything that came during their 6-2 pummeling at the hands of the Peterborough Petes Thursday night. Kingston was on the receiving end of the same number one night ago as the Hounds played a great game in the win.

One article ago I had mentioned that for the Hounds to be successful, they need Bryce McConnell-Barker to take the game into his hands and with those hands he did. MB responded with a dominating game scoring with 3 points (2G/1A) and 5 shots on goal. He played strong and skated hard and the result was that the captain led by example and all other players played great games. Rookie Christopher Brown is one of them scoring his first OHL goal while getting 3 pucks to the crease.

The Hounds started off the game a bit slow but once MB got the shorty, the Hounds dominated the rest of the game. That was a huge momentum shift as Kingston was about to take a 2-0 lead into the dressing room for the first period intermission. 

When the Hounds returned to play 15 minutes later, they were untouchable and didn’t resemble the team from a night before. They were fast, used the open ice well, and when called upon, backup goalie Samuel Ivanov was stellar. 

Other notes on the game were the consistent play of rookie D Man Andrew Gibson who managed 3 shots on goal while doing his job on the backend. One of my fav kids for the past couple of years is import Kirill Kudryavstev who finished the game with 3 shots, 2nd Star, and a beauty of a shot racing in from the blueline to beat the Kingston goalie early in the third period. This goal was also the game winning goal. 

Rookie Alex Kostov played hard physically and the open space he created rewarded him with two assists.

To some things up and putting things in perspective; the Hounds are close to being a 500 club in the near future if they play like they did last night. They have played top teams like Ottawa to a draw during regulation and last night the foe they played was one of the better teams in the league with a record of 6-3 with a .772 winning %. 

I believe if the Hounds can continue keeping things close and with the addition of a forward from either an import commitment or a trade; this team will go from rebuilding to competing, and can surely under the Dean coaching camp, contend for a good spot in the standings and possibly home ice advantage. I don’t think the Hounds will miss the playoffs; Raftis will not allow this to happen.

Tomorrow afternoon the Hounds may be able to get redemption from last week and take advantage of an Ottawa team had their winless streak broken last night and may suffer from the winners to the losers  blue