Sons, Wolves enjoy success in North Bay

With both the Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves and the Nickel City Sons of the Great North Midget League taking some positives away from their head-to-head matchup Dec. 12, it was left to both teams to build on that as they travelled to North Bay to face the Trappers on the weekend.

Andrew Dodge snapped a 2-2 tie on Dec. 15, netting his second goal of the game midway through the third period as the Nickel Capital Wolves doubled the Trappers 4-2.

Jeff Delange and Owen Fransen scored the remaining goals as the Nickel Capital Wolves remain deadlocked with Sault Ste Marie in first place after upending the Sons 4-1 last week at home.

Aaron Dart and Adrien Guenette replied for North Bay, currently sitting in sixth place but within just a few points of both Nickel City and Timmins.

As for coach Peter Michelutti Jr and company, the team has shown improvement after a 9-2 shellacking at the hands of the Soo, dropping a tough one-goal game in Sault Ste Marie before winning their last two.

Suffering an embarrassing loss at home, the Wolves staff looked for better things in the return match.

“Going into the Soo, the guys really responded,” said Michelutti. “We didn't want to turn the puck over, to give them odd man rushes. They don't like playing that three-on-three battle in the corner type of game.

“We outplayed them probably 80 per cent of the game, but they are definitely one of the best teams, if not the best team in the province. It was a good game, just to know that we can compete with them.”

The next challenge for the locals lies in the Cogeco Golden Horseshoe Tournament in Burlington over the Christmas break. Playing their first game mid-afternoon on Dec. 27, Sudbury will face the Toronto Marlboros, North York Rangers, Brampton 45's and Halton Hurricanes in round-robin play.

The Nickel City Sons, meanwhile, followed the lead of their cross-town rivals, slipping past North Bay 5-4 as Michael Michel scored the game-winning tally with just over five minutes to play.

Nathan Shane, Kurtis Clouthier, Matthew Neault and Sheldon Lalonde rounded out the scoring for the winners, while Steven Levesque, with two, Tyler Peters and Dart replied in a losing cause.

The Sons embark on a busy stretch of three games in four days beginning today with a trip to Sault Ste Marie, before hosting both Timmins and North Bay in Chelmsford this coming weekend.