Posted by Sudbury Northern Life Reporter Sabrina Byrnes
Knowing that it could have been their last game of the season, the Sudbury Wolves came out hard and fast Wednesday night, pounding on the Belleville Bulls to take a 6-2 victory, extending the series to game six.
Fans at the Sudbury Arena were not disappointed as they watched
Wolves' right wing Matt Dias blaze through the Bulls
scoring four of the six goals of the night.
Dias' first goal of the evening was 59 seconds into the first frame, assisted by Peter Hermenegildo and Eric O'Dell. The second came before the four minute mark assisted by John McFarland.
The crowd went into a frenzy as Dias continued his scoring ways, earning a hat trick in the first period on a power play, with another assist by Hermenegildo and Jake Cardwell.
The Wolves headed into intermission with a 3-0 lead over the Bulls. They kept that lead all the way through the second frame, just to make it a 4-0 lead as Dias once more swept the puck past Bulls' netminder Mike Murphy with less than a minute left in play, assisted by McFarland and O'Dell.
The Bulls were finally able to get past Wolves' goaltender Andrew Loverock in the third, cutting the Wolves' lead to three, but Marcus Foligno changed that as he added another marker to the board with assists by Kyle Tarini and Chris VanLaren.
The Bulls managed to get another goal before the frame was over, but so did the Wolves, as Gerome Giudice scored an empty netter with assists by VanLaren and Foligno, to make it a final score of 6-2.
"Coming into tonight's game the adrenaline was pumping, we kept it really positive and they responded very well. It was a team effort, it was a great team effort," said head coach and general manager Mike Foligno.
"I'm really excited for the team and the way they performed tonight. They executed the way we wanted them to, but also I think the way they expected themselves to, and it was great for our fans."
Foligno said they came out knowing that their fate was on the line.
"A little bit more desperation, but I think that also we had something to prove. We knew that we deserved a better fate especially after last night's game. We knew that we could play with Belleville. The fifth game is a big important game in the series," he said.
"Tonight we did what we needed to do and that was to keep the series alive, and now we have a chance to take it back to Belleville. That's what we're really geared up for now - game six."
Foligno said Dias had a strong performance.
"He came out and really carried the team for the most part. When you look at the kind of performance that he played with tonight, and that whole line played really, really strong."
With it being Dias' last season with the Wolves, the player said it very well could have been his last game, and he just wasn't ready to see the end.
"I definitely did not want it to be my last game ever, let alone my last game in Sudbury, so it was real nice to see a win tonight,"
He said he was pretty excited to swipe a few pucks past the Bulls leading netminder.
"I don't think I scored in the first shift in a long long time...I was lucky enough to score on Murphy twice," Dias said.
He agreed that the team came out with a bit of desperation tonight to hang on to the series.
"I think so. There was no tomorrow, now we have something to look forward to and the season's not over for us."
Wolves netminder Loverock, who made 43 saves for the win, felt the same way.
"Everyone knew that we had to win, you just got to play like you can, play your best and work as hard as you can and I thought we did that tonight."
Foligno said it was a great team effort for the win.
"When you look at our team, it was a team effort. Our goaltending was outstanding tonight...we just want to stay level headed. We know what's at stake. We know that usually the team that wins the fifth game wins 85 per cent of the series, and what we did ourselves a service for tonight was to take it to the sixth game. So we're just going to start right now getting ready for that sixth game and try and tie the series up," said Foligno.
All three game stars went to the Sudbury Wolves with Dias taking first, Loverock second and Foligno third.
The team will now rest up as they head to Belleville to play game six Monday night, followed by game seven if necessary Tuesday night.
