A second straight impressive performance has vaulted the Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves right back into playoff contention at the 2017 Central Region Midget "AAA" Championships taking place this week at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
A three goal first period got the locals off and running in game three Wednesday night, and they never looked back, blasting the North Bay Trappers 6-1 in a penalty-filled affair.
Matching up in a whole slew of tightly contested battles with their northern rivals in both regular season play, as well as during the GNML (Great North Midget League) finals, the Nickel Capital Wolves were in control of this latest showdown, almost from start to finish.
Goaltender Alex Vendette was on top of his game, posting a 37-save performance, while Mathieu Dokis-Dupuis powered the attack with a two goal effort as a dozen different Sudbury players recorded at least one point in the outing.
Hunter Chiblow, Tommy Vlahos, P.J. Nykilchuk and Alex Rodrigue joined Dokis-Dupuis in the goal scoring department, while defenceman Christopher Clark chipped in with three assists from the back-end.
"Right from the start, all of the guys were going," said fellow blue-liner Brandon Atkins.
"We finally started doing team warmups before the game, and it really brings the guys together. We each put three things in our stall that we wanted to sacrifice for each other before the game. I just think we have a really focused group in there right now."
The Sudbury midgets now sport a record of 2-1-0, tied for second place with the Windsor Jr. Spitfires, and behind only the Mississauga Rebels (2-0-1).
The Oakville Rangers (1-1-1) sit just one point back of the locals, as they teams prepare to go head to head Thursday evening at 7 p.m., with North Bay (1-2-0) and Cornwall (0-3-0) still looking to mount a late charge.
The top four teams at the conclusion of round robin play on Friday will advance to the semi-finals on Saturday, with both the gold and bronze medal games set for Sunday.
