The Sudbury Wolves were at home on Friday night to kick off the 2024 portion of their season against the visiting Brantford Bulldogs.
Earlier in the day, from Sweden, Wolves No. 1 goaltender Jakub Vondras backstopped Team Czechia to a bronze medal victory by defeating Team Finland 8-5 in the Bronze Medal Game at the 2024 World Junior Hockey Championships.
Wolves’ forward Dalibor Dvorsky was in the building, but not in the lineup, as he returned to Sudbury after also attending the World Juniors for Team Slovakia.
Nathan Villeneuve would start the scoring for the Sudbury Wolves in this game by scoring his ninth goal of the season to give the Wolves a 1-0 lead 7:15 into the opening period.
Just under seven minutes later the Wolves would increase their lead to 2-0 thanks to a power play goal from Kieron Walton, his 14th of the season.
Sixteen seconds later Nick Lardis would finally get Brantford on the board with his 27th goal of the season to cut Sudbury’s lead to 2-1.
With 1:05 remaining in the first period Lardis would score his second of the game, and 28th goal of the season, on a power play, to tie the game for Brantford, sending both teams into the dressing room for the first intermission tied 2-2.
Both teams would trade chances at the beginning of the second period, but the first goal went to Jorian Donovan of the Brantford Bulldogs, his ninth of the season, to put Brantford in the lead by a score of 3-2 at the 7:04 mark of the second period.
With 10:58 remaining in the second period, Chase Coughlan would score his sixth goal of the season for the Wolves to once again tie the game at 3-3.
2:14 later Quentin Musty would score his 18th of the season to put Sudbury on top by a score of 4-3.
With 6:20 left in the middle frame, Landon McCallum scored his 12th goal of the season to give the Wolves some insurance in the form of a 5-3 lead.
Marek Vanacker would put a bookend to the scoring in the second period for the Bulldogs with just 13 seconds remaining in the period by scoring his 16th goal of the season, a shorthanded tally, and pulling his team within a goal, down 5-4 to the Sudbury Wolves with one period left to play.
Both goalies would prove to be difficult to solve in the third period until Evan Konyen scored his 16th goal for the Wolves with just under six minutes remaining in the game to make the score 6-4 for Sudbury.
With just 29 seconds remaining David Goyette would seal the victory for the Sudbury Wolves, with an empty net goal, his 19th goal of the season, to make 3,979 fans happy.
With the win, the Sudbury Wolves now hold a record of 19 wins, 11 regulation time losses, three overtime losses, and two losses on the season, which puts them tied for first place with the Mississauga Steelheads for first place in the Ontario Hockey League’s Central Division.
The Sudbury Wolves get right back to work on Saturday, Jan. 6 at home against the visiting Kitchener Rangers with a scheduled start time set for 7:05 p.m.
Super fan Robert McCarthy covers Sudbury Five games for Sudbury.com. Got a question for Robert? Email it to [email protected].
