In no way were the Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves looking at their Great North Midget League final with the North Bay Trappers as a "do or die" series.
The fact is that with Sudbury hosting the Central Midget "AAA" Championships, both teams are already assured of a spot in the provincial playdowns.
The locals were, however, looking to be playing some pretty good hockey heading into the Telus Cup qualifier later this month.
That was likely the case for games one and two in North Bay, as the teams split their matchups last weekend, but certainly was not the case Saturday afternoon at the Sudbury Arena, at least not beyond the opening period.
Tied at one at the end of twenty minutes, the Nickel Capital Wolves were plagued by a somewhat lethargic effort through the middle stanza, and then an avalanche of undisciplined penalties in the third, allowing the visitors to cruise to a 5-1 win.
Joe Whittet opened the scoring for North Bay, mere seconds after the Wolves had killed off their first penalty of the game, but Hunter Chiblow got that one back for the homeside, with Marc-André Quevillon and Parker Savard drawing assists.
The Trappers took control of the contest in a span of 72 seconds, midway through period two, as Nick Davis and Ian Denomme both managed to put pucks past Sudbury netminder Alex Vendette, giving coach Guy Blanchard's troops a lead they would never relinquish.
North Bay would add to this lead, as Dylan Bond found the mark from the point through a crowd, with Sudbury in the midst of dealing with a double minor head contact infraction.
The third period featured a steady stream of misconducts, with Eric Lachance closing out the scoring with a late short-handed effort for the Trappers. The silver lining, perhaps, for the Nickel Capital Wolves, is they have plenty of time to right the ship.
With the OHL Cup taking place next week in Toronto, the GNML championship final will be put on hiatus until Tuesday, March 21.
The teams will hook up for game four that night at 8:30 p.m. at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.