BY SCOTT HADDOW
Battle Report
The Sudbury Wolves have the taste for blood,
and that spells doom for opposing teams.
Great wins, ugly wins, tight wins, somehow,
someway, lately, the Wolves have been finding ways to get
points out of games.
Sudbury's winning ways will be put to the
test this weekend as they face two tough enemies at home. First
up on Friday night are the Kitchener Rangers. Game time at the
Sudbury Arena is 7:30 pm. (The Wolves play Peterborough on
Sunday at 2 pm.)
Kitchener can be a handful for any squad on
any rink.
"We want to keep on doing what we have been
doing - finding ways to earn points," said Wolves head coach
and GM Mike Foligno. "Sometimes it's by playing strong
defensive. Sometimes it's late in a game. And sometimes it's in
shoot out, lately anyway. We have to keep doing whatever it
takes to get points out of every game we play."
Focusing on Kitchener, Foligno knows his
squad has to be ready for a team that thrives on specialty
teams.
The Rangers sport the third overall best PP
and the number one PK.
"They move around quickly and cover a lot of
ice...That's the key to a good penalty killing unit," said
Foligno. "We worked on quick puck movement in practice. The key
for us is to get more opportunities to shoot the puck."
The Wolves' brass has relished seeing players
step up under pressure while being counted upon to
produce.
Kevin Beech further cemented his status as a
top goalie in the league by stopping seven of nine shoot-out
shots in two shoot-out victories last weekend.
Sophomore Nick Foligno excelled in the centre
position last weekend, firing home three goals and six points
in three games.
Speedy veteran Kevin Baker showed his
razz-and-dazzle, popping several clutch goals last weekend as
well, including the dramatic shoot out winner against Brampton
last Friday at the Sudbury Arena.
"Again, Kevin showed his calm, cool and
collected attitude in net," said Foligno. "We gave Nick a
different challenge and he responded well. Kevin showed his
leadership qualities, scoring in shoot-outs and at regular
strength."
Foligno also praised the work of rookie
forward Keaton Turkiewicz, who stepped in and saw action on the
top two lines last week and excelled.
Enemy line
The Kitchener Rangers have adapted to life
quite well after Mike Richards.
The captain of the 2005 gold medal-winning
Canadian World Junior Hockey Championship team, as well as the
Rangers last season, Richards was the heart and soul of the
club.
After a few struggles early on in the 2005-06
campaign, the Rangers are rounding into form, and they're
looking to take a bite out of the Sudbury Wolves tonight.
Kitchener is 7-3 in its last 10 games and
16-10-0-1 overall.
Kitchener will bring its "A" game, and
expects the same from Sudbury.
"Sudbury has a good team," said Rangers head
coach and GM Pete DeBoer. "A key to a good team in this league
is to have a couple of impact players, and Sudbury has two in
Marc Staal and Ben Pouliot, and surround them with some depth."
Sudbury has done that as well. I think they're one of the teams
that could still be standing on the Eastern side in the
playoffs."
The Rangers have been a wheeling-and-dealing
team, looking to bolster scoring sensation Evan McGrath, who
has 55 points in 27 games.
"Evan's our offensive leader and one of the
top-five guys in creating offence. We've made some deals to try
and surround him with better players."
One of those new players is sniper David
Lomas, who came from Windsor.
"Lomas has come as advertised," said DeBoer.
"He has four goals and six points in his first five games. He's
strong in front of the net."
The moves have paid sweet dividends.
"A month ago, we were two games under .500,"
said DeBoer. "Now, we're five games over .500. We went through
a period of trying to find our identity and recognizing
weaknesses. We then went out and tried to address those
weaknesses through trades."
In the past few seasons, when the Rangers
have made their only appearance in Sudbury, it has been a
watered-down version, because it's been at Christmas time and
the roster was usually depleted by the WJC and Under-17
tournament.
This year, it's the same, but thanks to the
early December game, Sudbury fans will see a complete Kitchener
squad.
"We will lose defencemen Boris Valabik and
Jakub Kindl to the WJC for sure," said DeBoer. "We also lose
Yves Bastien and Mike Pelech to the U-17.
But all those players will be with us on the
road this weekend."
The Rangers are also relying on former Wolves
player Craig Voakes.
"Craig plays on our second and third lines
and he can really create mismatches with his skill against
third, fourth and fifth defencemen...He allows
McGrath to play as well as he does."
