The Sudbury Wolves dropped the opening game of their best-of-seven playoff series against the Peterborough Petes on March 30, falling 4-2 at the Peterborough Memorial Centre.
The game was a close one, but a pair of empty-net goals and a costly mistake put the win out of reach for the Pack. The Petes outshot the Wolves 38-28 and beat them on faceoffs 50-21. On the power play, neither team performed terribly well, with Sudbury going 0-5 and the Petes going 1-7.
Sudbury opened the scoring at 11:24 of the first on a nice three-on-two play that saw David Goyette and André Anania team up to feed Quentin Musty, who scored his first goal of the 2022-2023 playoffs to give the Pack a 1-0 lead.
The Petes would tie it up in the dying seconds of the first though after Avery Hayes fired a shot at Wolves goalie Kevyn Brassard. He couldn’t contain the rebound which was picked up by Jonathan Melee, who scored his first of the playoffs and short-handed no less.
With the game at 1-1, the second period saw Sudbury jumped out to an early lead. Goyette took possession near the Wolves blueline, beat one defender, crossed the blueline, deked a second Petes defender and headed for the net. Drawing Michael Sampson in his direction, Goyette fed Matthew Mania streaking in on the right wing who lifted a highlight-reel-worthy shot over Sampson.
From the highlight reel to the blooper reel. With the Petes looking at a delayed penalty, Sudbury pulled Brassard for the extra attacker. Musty was attempting to leave the Wolves’ zone with the puck but was checked by Melee and slid it back toward defenceman Jakub Chromiak who missed the pass, and the puck slid into the net.
Tied at 2-2, the Petes took the lead early in the third when Hayes found the back of the net at 5:32 (assisted by Brennan Othmann and Samuel Mayer) to give Peterborough a 3-2 lead.
The Pack once again pulled their goalie, this time at 17:41 of the third, and once again the move cost them. Hayes scored his second of the game for the Petes, depositing the puck in the Wolves empty net for a final score of 4-2 for Peterborough.
Game Two goes tonight in Peterborough at 7:05 p.m.
