The Sudbury Wolves struggled all night in the defensive zone in an 8-4 loss in Kitchener against the Rangers on Friday night.
Finn Marshall was the starting netminder for the Sudbury Wolves while the Kitchener Rangers went with Jason Schaubel between the pipes.
Quentin Musty also made his return to the Wolves’ lineup on Friday night, ending his early season hold out.
Kitchener opened the scoring at exactly the 5:00 mark of the first period, with Matthew Andonovski’s first goal of the season to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
Just over three minutes later, Luca Romano scored his sixth goal of the season to extend Kitchener’s lead to 2-0.
With 7:24 left to play in the opening period, Quentin Musty scored his first goal of the season in his first game back to cut the Rangers’ lead to 2-1.
With just 12 seconds remaining in the first period, former Sudbury Wolf Jakub Chromiak scored his second goal of the season, this one on the power play, to give the Kitchener Rangers a 3-1 lead after the first 20 minutes of the hockey game.
Just over a minute into the second period, the Wolves came within striking distance again when Nathan Villeneuve scored on the power play to make the score 3-2 for Kitchener.
At the 7:21 mark of the second period, the Rangers restored their two goal lead with a power play goal by Trent Swick, his sixth goal of the season, making the score 4-2 for Kitchener.
With 10:05 left to play in the middle frame, the Kitchener Rangers took control of the game with Adrian Misaljevic’s tenth goal of the season to give his team a 5-2 lead.
With 4:08 remaining in the second period, Kitchener increased their lead to 6-2 thanks to Cameron Reid’s fourth goal of the season, and with one period left in the hockey game Kitchener held a strong lead over the Sudbury Wolves.
Just over five minutes into the third period, the Wolves cut Kitchener’s lead in half when Lucas Di Giantommaso scored his fifth goal of the season to make the score 6-3 for Kitchener.
Misaljevic scored his second goal of the game, and his 11th of the season, to make the score 7-3 for Kitchener.
Luca Blonda scored his first goal in his rookie season for the Sudbury Wolves while Sudbury was on the power play with 8:23 remaining in the hockey game to make the score 7-4 for the Rangers.
Misaljevic completed the hat trick, and got his sixth point of the hockey game, with 5:12 remaining in the game when he scored on the empty net to cap off an 8-4 win for the Kitchener Rangers over the Sudbury Wolves.
With the loss, the Sudbury Wolves now hold a record of seven wins and six losses on the season.
The Wolves continue their weekend road trip on Saturday to take on the Brantford Bulldogs, with puck drop scheduled for 4 p.m. followed by a game on Sunday in St. Catharine’s to take on the Niagara Ice Dogs, with a scheduled start time of 2 p.m.
