Downtown's community arena hosted the first Sudbury Saturday Night of the 2019-20 regular season this past weekend, featuring entertainment from country band River Town Saints and of course, an epic matchup between the Sudbury Wolves and Peterborough Petes.
It took some time for the Wolves to find their footing Saturday, but once they landed that first goal, there was no turning back.
The pack once again kept their best performance for the final frame, delivering four goals in the period to earn them a 5-2 final in their favour.
Wolves' Macauley Carson, Liam Ross and David Levin, earned the title of first, second, and third star of the game.
With this victory, the Sudbury Wolves jump to second place in the league overall, with 11 wins and seven losses.
Epic defence between the pipes by Wolves' Christian Purboo and Petes' NHL prospect, Hunter Jones, kept both teams off the scoreboard in the first period. Which left plenty of time for the boys to visit the penalty box.
Sudbury served two minutes behind glass in the period opposed to the Peterborough's four minutes of penalty time.
Shots on goal were 16-10 in favour of Sudbury after the first 20 minutes.
The Wolves found their groove in the second period, letting off several shots before Murray broke open the scoreboard at 11:01 without assistance.
Unable to respond, the Petes' moved into the final frame down one, trailing Sudbury 9-3 in shots on goal.
Tempers rose in the third period, resulting in seven minutes of penalty time for the Petes and 9 for the Wolves. But this was not the only action that brought crowds to their feet.
Kosa Manikis brought the Wolves' lead to two 1:26 into the third period, with his second goal of the season. The Richmond Hill rookie was assisted in the play by Carson and Emmett Serensits.
He was followed to the net less than a minute later by teammate Levin, who delivered what would be the game-winning goal with assistance from Ross and Shane Bulitka.
Peterborough responded with a goal of their own by Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Nick Robertson at 6:16, who was assisted in his 17th goal of the season by Declan Chisholm and Semyon Der-Arguchintsev. Der-Arguchintsev returned to the net at 13:46, to cut the Wolves lead to one.
Just as it seemed the Petes' would manage to battle back from behind, Wolves' Quinton Byfield delivered Sudbury's insurance goal at 15:40. Byfield is currently tied for first in points, third in assists, and fourth in insurance goals among the league.
Nolan Hutcheson delivered Sudbury's last goal of the evening on the empty net of the Petes with less than two minutes remaining in play. He was assisted in his fourth goal of the season by Jack Thompson and Peter Stratis.
The match was called at a 5-2 final for the Wolves, with Sudbury once again outshooting their visitors 11-7 in the period.
Final shots on goal were 36-20 in favour of Sudbury.
The pack remains first in the Central Division.
They return to the Sudbury Arena Nov. 8 to defend their two-game win streak against the Niagara IceDogs.
