The Sudbury Wolves were on home ice Friday night for a pre-season game against the defending Ontario Hockey League champions, the Peterborough Petes.
The 1,018 fans in attendance were in for a spirited, back-and-forth affair.
Less than five minutes into the game, San Jose NHL draft pick Quentin Musty put a marker on the board for the hometown squad, his first of the pre-season, to give the Wolves an early 1-0 lead, with assists going to Kieron Walton and David Goyette.
Just over a minute later, 5:29 into the opening period, Chase Coughlan gave the Wolves some insurance when he scored his second goal of the pre-season to give Sudbury an early 2-0 lead.
While there were chances on both ends, the next goal didn’t come until the 17:26 mark of the first period, and it came off the stick of Peterborough Pete Konnor Smith, who cut Sudbury’s lead to one, with a score of 2-1 after the first twenty minutes of play.
Right out of the gate in the second period, Quinn Binnie for the Petes put the puck in the back of the net to tie the game at two goals apiece just 1:57 into the middle frame.
Just over four minutes later, Musty struck again with his second goal of the night, and in the pre-season, to restore a one-goal lead for the Wolves, with the score now 3-2.
At around the halfway mark in the second period, Sudbury native Sam McCue scored for Peterborough to once again tie the game, 3-3.
A short time later, Wolves returnee Kocha Delic scored his first of the pre-season to once again give Sudbury a one goal lead, 4-3.
With just over three minutes remaining in the second period, David Goyette, coming off training camp with the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, notched an insurance marker for the hometown Wolves to make the score 5-3 with one period left to play.
Peterborough wasn’t going away quietly, however, and showed exactly why they are the defending champs.
Over halfway through the final period of regulation, Jonathan Melee put home his first of the pre-season to bring Peterborough within one goal, with Sudbury hanging onto a 5-4 lead.
Almost three minutes later, Brody Partridge scored his first goal of the pre-season for Peterborough to tie the game 5-5.
The Petes completed the comeback in the shootout handing the Wolves a 6-5 pre-season loss on home ice.
The Sudbury Wolves hold a record of one win and one loss in pre-season action so far, and next take the ice on Sep. 20 at home against Northern Ontario rivals the Soo Greyhounds, with puck drop taking place at 7:05 p.m.
Super fan Robert McCarthy covers home games of the Sudbury Wolves and Sudbury Five for Sudbury.com. Got a question for Robert? Email it to [email protected].
