The Sudbury Wolves looked to be in control of their game with North Bay Sunday afternoon, leading 5-2 with 9:57 left to go in the third period.
But the Troop stormed back with four unanswered goals, including the game winner with 3.9 seconds left in the game.
“That’s a tough loss," said head coach Cory Stillman. "We came, yes we got outshot, but we were competing, and in the third period we fell apart. It’s not good enough. We had a chance to win the hockey game, and we let it slip away, and let two points slip away on home ice.”
The message from the coaching staff and veterans was that it’s a long season and regrouping now is extremely important.
“We did a lot of good things," Stillman said. "We know it’s going to take a bit of time. Obviously, in this league you don’t have time. You don’t want to dig yourself in a hole. We’re starting to move pucks, we’re starting to get on bodies. Today, we battled a little harder than we did the last game, and being a young team, when they started to get rolling in the third period, we sat on our heels and it cost us the game.”
The Wolves also get another crack at their division rivals in North Bay on Wednesday.
“The next couple days are huge," said Michael Pezzetta. "We’ve got a day off tomorrow, but a lot of guys will be in the gym working out. It’s important to just regroup, regroup our minds. I mean, it was a tough weekend coming off two loses, but build off that and learn things from each game and come in on Wednesday and really bring our game because we need a win.”
Jake McGrath was back in net after a rough outing on Friday. The Wolves were outshot in the game 43-26 and 19-6 in the third period.
Sudbury was held without a shot for the final 6:46 of the third.
The game started with a little deja-vu as North Bay scored just 27 seconds into the first period, Oshawa scored 45 seconds in on Friday.
Sudbury was able to rebound and put in a quick goal of their own 15 seconds later past Julian Sime. Nolan Hutcheson picked up his first career OHL goal off a rebound.
That was it for scoring in the first period.
The Wolves netted four unanswered goals with two in the second and one early in the third period. Shane Bulitka scored his first of the season, while Anthony Tabak picked up his first point in the OHL, doing a great job keeping the puck in the North Bay zone and feeding Bulitka with the pass.
Pezzetta finished serving a two-game suspension that dated back to last year’s playoff series with Oshawa, and had a major impact in his first game back.
Cole Candella fired a point shot that hit Sime’s pad and bounced right to Pezzetta, who found the open cage.
David Levin crossed the blue-line, used a nice toe-drag and fired a laser top left corner for his first goal of the year. Levin and Dmitry Sokolov were called out for their effort in Game 1, and while the pair put up just two combined points, it was their play on both ends of the ice that impressed the coaches.
“I think you saw a much better effort out of Sokolov and Levin today, and that’s just the way it’s going to go. We’re here to win hockey games, to become better players, and in order to do that you have to bring it every night. The guys that are playing are going to be on the ice all the time and the other guys, I don’t care if you’re 16 or 20, if you deserve to be out there, you’re working, you’re battling, you’ll see the ice time,” said Stillman.
Cam Dineen made the game 5-2 in the third with a beautiful highlight-reel goal, as he put the puck through the skates of Conor Ali and then shot by the blocker of McGrath. Pezzetta was sprung on a break just three minutes later and went high blocker side on Sime for his second of the game.
Pezzetta said it doesn’t matter if he has the game of his life, if the team loses.
“At the end of the day, it’s about winning hockey games," he said. "We lost the hockey game, so it doesn’t really matter what I did on the ice out there, because when it came down to it, we didn’t get the win. For me it’s just back to the drawing board and make sure I’m stronger in the d-zone and can help out in that aspect of the game.”
However, Stillman said it was nice having the veteran back in the lineup.
“When you get an older guy back in, he does bring some energy, and he had some goals for us, he played hard and there’s some things he needs to work on, too. But if he can bring a consistent effort and be a leader on our team, that will mean some good things for us,” said Stillman.
Wolves fans looked like they were watching a team that was going to cruise to their first victory of the season, but that’s when North Bay put on the pressure.
The Battalion kept the puck inside the Wolves' zone and filtered shots to the net, getting a few bounces along the way.
Luke Burghardt had a hat trick, including the game-winning goal and now has five goals through two games after coming over from Guelph in a trade this summer.
North Bay’s own Brady Lyle scored and Daniil Vertiy added the other goal for the Troop.
North Bay moves to 2-0 on the year while Sudbury sits 0-2.
It’s going to be a big next few games for the local juniors as they head to North Bay Wednesday, then welcome the Barrie Colts on Friday before taking on one of the best teams in the CHL, the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds on Oct 1.
