The Sudbury Wolves’ Sunday afternoon tilt at TD Place against the Ottawa 67s didn’t go the way Head Coach Derek MacKenzie and his squad wanted.
The Pack was coming off a Friday visit with the Kingston Frontenacs at the Leon’s Centre, which saw the Wolves fall 5-4 in overtime.
Hoping to get one back during their Sunday afternoon match in Ottawa, the Wolves instead found themselves on the losing end of the affair, falling 5-1 the league-leading 67s.
The Wolves outshot Ottawa 28-23, while the 67s outshone Sudbury on the power play, going one-for-three to the Pack’s zero-for-three.
The loss sees the Wolves’ record drop to 7-11-3-0, good enough for 17 points. The team sits eighth in the OHL’s Eastern Conference and 18th overall.
The first period went mostly scoreless until the final minute when Cameron Tolnai found the back of the net, assisted by Brad Gardiner and Thomas Sirman, to make it 1-0 for Ottawa.
The Wolves managed to tie it up just past the halfway mark of the second period when Alex Pharand scored his 11th of the season, unassisted no less.
The 1-1 tie would last about 60 seconds. At 13:03 of the second and with the Wolves on the penalty kill, Henry Mews scored for Ottawa (assists, Tyler Boucher and Anthony Costantini) to put the 67s up 2-1.
Ninety seconds later, Mews would do it again (assists, Luca Pinelli and Cooper Foster) and Ottawa was up 3-1.
The game would be scoreless until the 5:35 mark of the third period, when Tyler Boucher (assist Brady Stonehouse) added another to make it a 4-1 67s hockey game.
Ottawa would get one final marker before the game ended, with Brad Gardiner banging home an empty-netter at 13:08 of the third after Sudbury gambled and pulled its goalie to get an extra power play attacker.
The game ended 5-1 for Ottawa.
The Pack embarks on a four-game home stand starting Wednesday, Nov. 30, when the North Bay Battalion come to town. Puck drops at 7:05 p.m.
The Owen Sound Attack comes to town for a Friday night match on Dec. 2, followed by a visit from the Niagara IceDogs on Dec. 4. Then, on Friday Dec. 9, the Pack welcomes the Saginaw Spirit to Sudbury Arena.
