BY SCOTT HUNTER HADDOW
The Sudbury Wolves slugged it out with the visiting Toronto St. Michael's Majors on Friday night.
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Both teams entered the game riding five-game streaks. The Majors were enjoying a five-game winning streak, while the Wolves were mired in a five-game losing streak.
The game also marked the debut of Valley East native Eric Larochelle for the Wolves. He was acquired last week in a trade with the Guelph Storm.
With both teams were stacked with plenty of toughness and grit; the entire game was filled with intense, physical play from the drop of the first puck.
Toronto's Tim Brent opened the scoring in the first period when he broke away from Wolves defenders, skated in alone on Wolves' goalie Patrick Ehelechner and fired the puck low short-side to make it 1-0 at 4:31.
Wolves' Chanse Fitzpatrick threw a huge open-ice hit moments later that sent Toronto's Ryan Wilson flying to the ice.
Sudbury tied the game when, Rafal Martynowski stole the puck from a Toronto defender, raced in from the blue line, deked out Toronto's goalie Michael Ouzas and slid the puck past him to make it 1-1 at 12:57. The goal was a short-handed effort.
Toronto broke the tie on the power play minutes later when Scott Lehman received a pass from Brent and ripped a bullet through traffic that eluded Ehelechner to make it 2-1 at 18:31.
The Wolves answered right back.
A huge goal mouth scramble saw Fitzpatrick jam home a loose puck past a prone Ouzas to make it 2-2 at 19:16.
The second period saw the rough stuff heat up.
Early in the second period, Matt Maccarone dropped the gloves with Toronto's Wilson.
The boys stood toe-to-toe, throwing and landing several punches before Maccarone got Wilson turned around and pummeled him with a flurry of right hands.
From there, Martynowski dropped the mitts with Chris Cunningham. The two had a short, spirited scrap before crashing to the ice.
Toronto seemed to get the boost out of the fights.
Just after the midway mark of the second period Toronto broke the tie again when a point shot by Toronto's Ian Maracle beat Ehelechner through traffic to make it 3-2 at 11:22. It would turn out to be the winning goal.
Toronto added the insurance marker minutes later when Connor Cameron tipped a point shot past Ehelechner to make it 4-2 at 18:53.
Seconds after the ensuing face off, Wolves Alex Eaton danced with Toronto's Nathan McIver. It was a wild fight, with both men throwing haymakers and rolling around on the ice before being broken up.
The third period turned into chaos as both teams made regular trips to the sin bin.
With under five minutes to go, all heck broke loose as the Wolves frustration boiled over.
Eaton, Ryan Hastings and Martin Doyle all paired off with Toronto players in a ballistic scrum, while Fitzpatrick skated around the ice looking for a willing partner and challenging the entire Toronto bench. Toronto head coach, Dave Cameron could be heard calling the Wolves a gong show from the bench while the brawl ensued.
In the end, the Wolves simply couldn't muster enough offence to get back into the game and lost 4-2.
Wolves' head coach and general manager Mike Foligno was thinks the game could have been different if the Wolves had played with as much intensity as they played with in the third period.
"In the third period we really came on," said Foligno. "We outworked them, outplayed them and that's where we have to keep playing each and every game. We played with a lot of emotion in that third period. That's something we have to build on."
Foligno made no reservation about his team's toughness and willingness to make other teams wary about playing Sudbury.
"Our guys aren't going to back down from anybody," said Foligno. "We have a team that's very tough. If a team is going to come in our building and walk away with a couple of points, they will be walking away bandaged up."
Wolves captain Zack Stortini knows his teammates are trying hard and are looking for some breaks, but wants the team to remain positive.
"We have to keep battling through the adversity," said Stortini. "The officiating is in tough against us and we have to keep working hard."
Larochelle felt decent out on the ice for the first time this season, but would've felt better with a win.
"I felt pretty good out there, but it would've felt better getting a win," said Larochelle. "I am hoping to stabilize the blue line and help out with the younger guys.
The Wolves next home game is this Friday against the Mississauga IceDogs. Game time is 7:30 pm.
Snap shots
-Ehelechner finished the game with 28 saves on 32 shots
-Doyle playing in his first game since being recalled by the Wolves contributed with an assist and some physical play
-Larochelle looked solid in his debut contributing a couple of crushing body checks and timely defensive plays
