BY SCOTT HUNTER HADDOW
A hot start and a hot finish couldn't lift the Sudbury Wolves to victory over the visiting Oshawa Generals yesterday at the Sudbury Arena. The Generals won 3-2.
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The Wolves scored early in the first period and late in the third period, but the boys couldn't overcome the three goals the Generals pumped past Pat Ehelechner during the entire game.
The Wolves blew two five-on-three power plays in the second period enroute to the loss.
Head coach and General Manager Mike Foligno obviously has seen better games, but was pleased with the work ethic his team showed against a strong Generals team.
"You have to give credit to their goal tender," said Foligno. "Turple played really well, held them in the game and gave them a chance to come out of this arena with a couple of points. Our guys never quit. Our guys worked really hard."
With a total of 48 shots on the Generals net, Foligno knows his team has one area to work on.
"There's an area we can improve on is obviously getting a little more accurate with some of our shots and with our shooting around the net," said Foligno.
Foligno isn't disappointed with the effort, but he isn't satisfied with it either.
"We knew this was an opportunity for us to move up the ladder to get 20 points in our league," said Foligno "We have to keep doing the things we do well and that's getting points out of a hockey game. On any other given night you might end up with five or six goals and tonight the goaltending was the difference. We can't get down, but we can't be very happy with our play."
With the blown power plays and the Wolves already owning the league's worst power play unit, Foligno sees it improving.
"The movement on the power play was a lot better," said Foligno. "The shots total was a lot better and that's really going to be the key. Again getting those quality shots through. The key is getting shots on net and having somebody in front of the net."
The Wolves opened the scoring early when Luke Dubbin blasted a hot shot at General's goalie Dan Turple that he couldn't handle and Sean Stefanski scooped up the rebound and fired it into the net at 4:41.
The Generals answered back when Tobias Whelan and Ben Eager broke in on Ehelechner. Whelan sauced a nice pass to Eager who zipped it by Ehelechner to tie the game at 1-1 at 15:26.
The Generals took the lead in the second period when Brandon McBride skated into the Wolves slot and let a back hand shot go that eluded Ehelechner at 13:11 to make it 2-1.
The Generals added to their lead when McBride wrapped the puck around the net that found a way past Ehelechner to make it 3-1 at 17:38.
The Wolves made it interesting though. They pulled Ehelechner with about a minute remaining in the game and were rewarded. Sean Langdon pounced on a juicy rebound in the slot and fired it home to make it 3-2 at 19:12.
It was too little, too late as the Wolves were never able to regain the General's zone and dropped a heart breaker.
The Wolves next home game is Friday Dec. 5 against the Peterborough Petes. Game time is 7:30 pm
