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Coming off a Friday night win over the Mississauga Steelheads, the Sudbury Wolves had a bit of momentum heading into their Sunday afternoon contest against the visiting Barrie Colts.
The two teams traded shots for most of the first period. Sudbury picked up two penalties on the period, one of which led to the first goal of the game.
Unfortunately, the goal wasn’t in Sudbury’s favour. After Jack Thompson picked up a cross-checking penalty at around the 10-minute mark, the Colts were on the powerplay. The Wolves came close to killing the penalty, but with about 20 seconds left, Barrie’s Nicholas Porco picked up his ninth goal of the season and gave the Colts a 1-0 lead.
The Wolves came out firing on all cylinders for the second period. Again, the teams traded shots. For the first five minutes, it was back and forth, until Wolves forward Quentin Musty picked up his fifth goal of the season to tie the game at one apiece.
The Pack would take the lead just before the 13-minute mark when Matthew Mania picked up his first goal of the season, with assistance from Musty and Evan Konyen, to make it a 2-1 hockey game for the Wolves.
Sudbury would hang onto that slim lead for the rest of the second and into the third, until Barrie’s Jacob Frasca found the back of the net, again on the powerplay, to knot the game 2-2.
Five minutes later Barrie would take the lead when Anthony Tabak fed Cooper Matthews who picked up his third goal of the season and allowed the Colts to retake the lead, 3-2.
The teams would battle back and forth for the rest of the period, with Sudbury keeping the pressure on, outshooting the Colts eight to five.
Sudbury pulled goalie Mitchell Weeks just before the 18-minute mark to get the man advantage, but the only result of that move was an empty-netter from the Colts’ Evan Vierling to seal the deal and end the game 4-2 for Barrie.
With the loss, the Pack’s record falls to 8-13-1, good enough for ninth place in the Eastern Conference, ahead of the Niagara IceDogs. Overall, the Wolves sit in 18th place in the OHL standings. The London Knights lead the league with a record of 15-4-1.
The Wolves are back in action on Dec. 1 when they travel to Sault Ste. Marie to take on the Greyhounds.
