The Sudbury Wolves may have dominated most aspects of the game Friday night against North Bay, but the Battalion came out on top where it mattered 3-2 in overtime.
For the Wolves it was more a game of missed opportunities than a lack of effort.
“Those games almost worry you because you have so many chances, especially in the second period we had so many opportunities to get ourselves ahead, but it just didn’t happen," said head coach David Matsos. "The effort level was good, I thought we played a pretty clean game to be honest and would have liked to see our guys get the two points, but we got to find a way to get more this weekend.”
The Wolves out-shot the Battalion 36-26, out-chanced the Troop and won the face off battle 41-15, but nice a two-on-one finish from North Bay was how it ended.
“I think when you get to the stats, we won the game in 60 minutes, but missed some opportunities, this late in the season you can’t do it right now, when it comes to playoff time you got to bury every opportunity,” said Drake Pilon.
It was the third time in five meetings the Central Division rivals needed extra time and the fourth one goal game, but it also gives North Bay the 3-2 edge on the season series.
The Wolves, who came into the game six points up on North Bay missed a chance to widen the gap.
They also came into the game 5th in the OHL on the penalty kill, but North Bay got their two regulation goals on the man advantage and that’s now five goals given up on the kill in the last two games.
North Bay scored two times on three power play chances Friday night.
“It’s been about a week and a half now that we’ve got to tighten up our penalty kill again," said Matsos. "We killed one off out of three chances. That was getting us through games early on and right now it doesn’t seem like that part of the game is clicking for us, it’s definitely an area that we got to get back going down the stretch here.”
But that aside Matsos would have been more disappointed if Dmitry Sokolov wasn’t able to score his 39th of the season with 1:15 left in the third period and allow the Wolves to at least pick up a point.
And North Bay goalie Brent Moran had a great game stopping 34 of 36 shots.
“60 minutes I thought we played a pretty clean hockey game, we had close to 50 shot attempts in the first 40 minutes of the game and their goalie did a good job kind of weathering what was coming at him, killing plays for them," said Matsos. "Can’t fault the effort I thought the guys played a good hockey game tonight."
The loss puts Sudbury at 22-25-7-0 with 51 points they sit five up on North Bay and Niagara, who they will see Sunday.
It also gives the Wolves the most overtime loses in the OHL with seven.
Here’s how it got to overtime.
The first period didn’t start the way of the Wolves, as North Bay took to the early power play.
A scramble in front saw a couple shots saved by Jake McGrath until Daniil Vertiy stepped in a whacked home his 12th of the season.
A little later Max Kislinger hit Reagan O’Grady into the boards behind the Wolves net, which Patrick Sanvido took exception too and dropped the gloves with Kislinger.
O’Grady was down for a while and left the ice not able to put much weight on his left leg.
O’Grady returned in the second while Kislinger was given checking from behind, fighting and game misconduct penalties.
The Wolves were able to get a few good chances with tips in front of the net but none translated to goals.
After one it was 1-0 for North Bay and the shots sat at 10-6 for Sudbury.
The Wolves were able to even up the scoring early in the second period, 29 seconds in.
Kyle Capobianco fired a shot from the point which was tipped in by Drake Pilon for his 4th of the season.
Pilon was in a 28 game goal drought before scoring on February 4th, the hard working forward now has two in his last six.
“We have our skilled guys that can do our skill things, but I’m not one of them, I just play my game, hit hard and then just get the dirty goals and forecheck,” said Pilon.
The Wolves dominated puck possession in the period getting numerous chances in close, but goalie Brent Moran was up to the challenge.
The second period came to an end with the Wolves again winning the shot battle 17-11.
In the third it was another tip goal, as Justin Brazeau got his stick on a point shot to get his 18th of the season.
As mentioned the Wolves picked up a goal late, on the power play Sokolov was able to beat Moran five-hole with David Levin getting an assist and Capobianco picking up his second helper of the game.
In overtime Sokolov had a great chance to end it but just couldn’t pick the top left corner, and a little while later Steve Harland played a nice passing game on a two-on-one with Brett McKenzie with Harland ending the game.
Jake McGrath got the start making 23 of 26 saves and drops to 13-11-6-0 on the season.
The Wolves will have to regroup quickly with the Ice Dogs coming into town on Sunday, the Wolves will wear their Superhero jerseys, raising money for NEO Kids, the game is a 2 p.m., start.
Then it’s out on the road Monday for a trip to Peterborough.
