Coming off a loss at home on Saturday, the Sudbury Wolves hit the road for Mississauga on Sunday hoping to get one back.
Unfortunately, a win was not in the cards for the Pack and they fell 5-3 to the Steelheads. It was a hard fought game though, with the Wolves sticking close to Mississauga despite being outshot 45-24.
The teams battled back and forth for the first half of the first period before Steelheads’ forward Aidan Prueter got Mississauga on the scoreboard and made it a 1-0 game. Five minutes later, Owen Beck found the back of the net on a power play to give Mississauga another one to make it a 2-0 game.
The Wolves would get revenge less than two minutes into the second when Liam Ross (assists Marc Boudrea and Evan Konyen) would score — also on the power play — to pull Sudbury to within one.
But less than a minute later, Luca Del Bel Belluz would score to give the Steelheads a 3-1 lead. The Wolves weren’t going to take that lying down though, and about six minutes later David Goyette would score Sudbury’s second power play goal of the game (assists Matthew Mania, Konyen) to pull the Pack to within a goal once again.
At around the 12-minute mark of the second, though, Mississauga would score the game-winner when Owen Beck notched his second of the game, short-handed this time, to make it a 4-2 Steelheads hockey game.
Still being peppered with shots, Wolves netminder Mitchell Weeks stood tall between the pipes, fending off shots and keeping Sudbury in the game.
Nearly six minutes into the third, the Wolves would pull within one goal again, when David Goyette scored on the power play (assists Mania, Nick DeGrazia) to bring the score to 4-3.
With three-quarters of the period to go, the Wolves had time to turn the game around but they just couldn’t break the Steelheads defense.
At 8:48 of the third, James Hardie would add an insurance goal for Mississauga to make it a 5-3 game, and that’s where it would stay.
With the win, Mississauga, currently sitting fourth in the Eastern Conference, clinched a playoff position.
The loss drops Sudbury’s record to 22-34-3-4, good enough for ninth in the East. The Pack is two positions back of seventh place and not in a playoff position. Overall, Sudbury is 18th in the OHL.
The Wolves are at home for two games this week. Tomorrow (April 5), they take on the visiting Niagara IceDogs. Game time is 7:05 p.m. Then on Friday, the Pack welcomes the Soo Greyhounds to Sudbury Arena for a 7:05 tilt.
