Soo Greyhounds hit the road for semi-finals series with Flint

The Soo Greyhounds knew that in all likelihood, they'd be starting their western conference semi-finals on the road, and Wednesday night they found out where.

The Greyhounds travelled to Flint on Thursday to begin their series with the Firebirds, who are making their first second-round appearance in franchise history.

"The guys are dialed into the playoffs and they know for us to be successful, our intensity level has to be high, so we focusing on rasping a weapon, but we also focused on the ice, that we remain very intense," said Soo coach John Dean.

"We've taken a bit of a mantra -- Rory Kerins has really settled us in and calmed us down, we're just going to win one game at a time."

Kerins, the team's top scorer, has been huge for the team's success.

On the blue line, trade deadline acquisition Jack Thompson has been equally as impressive since getting a second chance in the playoffs with the Hounds.

Thompson said there were early jitters against Guelph in their opening series, with the team lacking deep experience.

"My first playoffs were when I was 16 -- there hasn't been one since," he added.

"It's kind of been a long layoff for even guys that have played in the playoffs before. So it's just trying to keep everyone level-headed and not get your highs too high and your lows too low."

Dean said despite the team beating Guelph in a relatively comfortable five games, there's still plenty to improve upon.

"We blew a lead, went to overtime, a huge lead, we took too many penalties," he said. "We did a lot of things that looked like a first-year team, young guys playing in their first-ever playoffs."

Dean said the players will bring a tonne of heart when they begin their series in Flint this weekend, to give fans back at home something to cheer.