The Sudbury Wolves came back from Christmas break on Thursday night for a game against the Barrie Colts at the Sadlon Arena in Barrie.
Marcus Vandenberg got the start in goal for the visiting Wolves while Ben West got the nod for the Colts.
In a penalty-filled opening frame, Jack Brauti got the Colts on the board first, scoring his third goal of the season just 4:40 into the first period to give Barrie an early 1-0 lead over Sudbury.
The remainder of the period was a fairly steady parade to the penalty box, with both teams accumulating a total of five penalties in the first period, Sudbury earning three and Barrie two.
Despite their best efforts, the Wolves could not solve West in the Barrie net in the opening 20 minutes and went into the dressing room trailing the Colts 1-0 after 20 minutes of play.
Much like in the first period, Barrie would draw first blood in the second. Riley Patterson would score his ninth goal of the season for Barrie just over a minute into the second period to give the Colts a 2-0 lead.
It took until 8:49 of the middle frame for the Wolves to get on the board. They did it thanks to Alex Pharand, who scored his sixth goal of the season for Sudbury to cut Barrie’s lead to 2-1.
Less than five minutes later, at the 13:17 mark, Pharand would do it all over again, scoring his second of the game and seventh of the season to tie the game at 2-2.
The Pack would take the lead with 2:03 remaining in the second period after Quentin Musty scored his 16th goal of the season.
With one period remaining in regulation, Sudbury had battled back from a 2-0 deficit to take the lead, 3-2.
Despite being peppered with 23 shots from the Wolves in the second period alone, West stood tall in net for Barrie. In terms of the shots on goal department, Sudbury was well ahead of Barrie, going 33-16 after 40 minutes of play.
Just past the five-minute mark of the third, the Colts would tie the game at 3-3 on a goal by Riley Patterson.
The game would stay knotted at 3-3 for the remainder of the final frame, sending the game to overtime.
That extra period would solve nothing, so the teams would go to a shootout.
The Colts’ Beau Jelsma would be the only goal scorer for either team in the shootout, securing the victory for the Barrie Colts by a score of 4-3.
With the loss, the Wolves secured a point on the road and now hold a record of 16 wins, 11 losses, three overtime losses and two shootout losses on the season, which is good for third place in the Ontario Hockey League’s Central Division.
The Sudbury Wolves are right back at it at home on Friday evening, Dec. 29, against rival North Bay Battalion with a scheduled start time of 7:05 p.m. The team wraps up the 2023 portion the season with a Dec. 30 game against the Soo Greyhounds in Sault Ste. Marie with a scheduled start time of 7:07 p.m.
Super fan Robert McCarthy covers Sudbury Wolves games for Sudbury.com. Got a question for Robert? Email it to [email protected].
