BY SCOTT HUNTER HADDOW
The Sudbury Northern Wolves showed tremendous resolve last night against the North Bay Skyhawks, battling back twice in the game to score a thrilling 4-3 win, which gave new Northern Wolves head coach Jason Stos his first victory.
Both teams played a fairly conservative game for most of the first two periods.
Northern Wolves goalie, Kevin Beech kept his team in the game early with some outstanding saves in tight and stopping howitzers from the point.
North Bay broke the goose egg in the second on the power play, when Chad Glode pounced on a loose puck in a scramble and chipped it by a prone Beech at 18:14.
North Bay took a commanding 2-0 lead, early in the third when, Dan Glegloff skated in on a two-on-one rush and buried a quick snap shot under Beech's blocker.
The Northern Wolves jumped right back into the game just over three minutes later, when Christian Cundari converted a perfect pass from Cory McGillis and zipped it by Skyhawks goalie Martin Perreault on the blocker side. It was Cundari's first ever career NOJHL goal and he would prove to be a huge factor later in the game.
Cundari then tied the game with a power play goal at 10:27. Cundari jumped on a loose biscuit in the slot and fired it home past a sprawling Perreault.
The Northern Wolves were flying and buzzing around the Skyhawks zone looking to leap ahead, but North Bay's Matt West slipped the puck past Beech in a mad scramble at 11:56 to go up 3-2 with only half a period to go.
Then in an effort to spark his club, Northern Wolves forward, McGillis dropped the mitts with North Bay's Jason Gauthier. McGillis the smaller of the two by 35 pounds, put up a spirited scrap, landing several punches to Gauthier that split his nose wide open. They grappled and fell to the ice.
The tilt motivated the Northern Wolves. Soon after North Bay found themselves in penalty trouble and were down two men. The Northern Wolves would come through with the two-man advantage.
Cundari stepped up and finished a sweet tic-tac-toe passing play from captain Brian McGarry and Kyle Hope to tie the game with 1:10 to play in the period. The goal gave Cundari the hat trick.
The Northern Wolves, smelling blood, went for the kill. They still had a one-man advantage.
Tyler MacKenzie Dan Bourgeois broke in on a two-on-one with MacKenzie making a deft pass to Bourgeois, who hesitated for a second, before firing home the game winner at 19:09 on the power play.
The Northern Wolves held off North Bay's last ditch efforts, skating away with a 4-3 win.
For Northern Wolves new head coach Jason Stos, the win was huge.
"It feels good. I just came in here the other day and I adapted to a good situation," said Stos. "It's a great feeling to come out with a win the first night."
Stos was proud of his team's total effort.
"The boys battled back from a deficit and never gave up. The bench was positive the whole time," said Stos. "Everybody played well."
Cundari was ecstatic about his break out performance.
"It feels awesome," said Cundari. "You never expect to have an explosive performance, but it's always good to have one."
Beech knew what it took for him to have a solid game.
"I saw the puck well tonight because my defencemen took care of the guys in front of the net and cleared them away."
Bourgeois liked his team's character last night.
"We had a slow start, but as the game went on, everybody came on strong," said Bourgeois. "I felt we outplayed them."
Skyhawks head coach and general manager, Guy Blanchard was disappointed with his club's overall lack of discipline.
"We played like a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds. We're a veteran hockey team and we didn't play as well as we should have," said Blanchard. "We took a lot of penalties, but chalk it up as a loss and maybe it will give our guys a wake up call."
The Northern Wolves next game is on the road against the Blind River Beavers on Sept. 27. Their next home game is Oct. 1 against the Soo Thunderbirds. Game time is 7:30 at the McClelland Arena in Copper Cliff.
Snap Shots
-Beech turned away 31 of 34 shots fired his way. Perreault stopped 27 of 31 shots.
-Northern Wolves forward Kyle Doherty left the game in the second period with an apparent bad leg and never returned.
-The three stars of the game were: #3-Bourgeois, #2-Darren Michelutti and #1-Cundari.
-The Northern Wolves now sit on top of the NOJHL Eastern Division standings with six points, two ahead of North Bay.
