It’s been a while since a crowd at the Sudbury Arena had a chance to see the Wolves duke it out for the division lead this late into the season, and they were treated to quite the game as Sudbury rallied to beat Mississauga 4-3 in a shootout.
“Never an easy game (against Mississauga)," said head coach Dave Matsos. "They have lightning speed. They have some big bodies on the back end, and that’s not an easy team to play against. I like dialling in on our guys. Win, lose or draw, we still played the right way for 60 minutes and that’s our focus.”
The players are visibly having fun, a change over some frustrating times in the past few years.
“We finally got it in our heads that we are a team to be reckoned with this year, and it’s been a blast so far," said Zach Wilkie. "We went through a stretch where we had some bad breaks, but since the Christmas break, we’ve all tied together so much as a team.”
The coaching staff is seeing a practice plan that carries into the games and results in a hard-nosed but fun game to watch.
“The thing is, they’re doing it the right way, which makes it even bette," said Matsos. "That’s even more rewarding. We’re playing the hockey game the way it’s meant to be played. The mood won’t change as long as we keep playing that way. We’re not going to go get a point out of every game the rest of the way, and we understand that, but we’re starting to create some consistency and some really good hockey habits out there that we’re sticking too.”
With the win, the Wolves move into a tie, point wise, with the Steelheads for first in the Central Division.
They have also picked up a point in all but one of their nine games since coming back from Christmas, including two big division wins this weekend.
Alan Lyszczarczyk, who scored the game winner in overtime and the game-tying goal, is having a great time playing hockey this season.
“For sure it’s more fun because we win games,” said Lyszczarczyk.
The Wolves survived a wobbly second period, where penalties were handed out all over the place and the Steelheads scored three straight goals, but it’s nothing new for this team, who find themselves never out of a game.
“All of us are sticking together no matter what the score is, and that’s made a huge difference. Our older guys are stepping up right now and taking the younger guys under our wing, and our younger guys are buying into the system, same as our older guys,” said Wilkie.
Seeing three straight goals had the coaching staff sweating a bit, but Matsos is starting to realize he shouldn’t have to panic.
“I was a little bit worried in the second because I didn’t know if we were going to be able to pull ourselves back, but I should never question these guys, because they’ve just started gelling so well together,” said Matsos.
Wilkie scored the first goal of the game, with one second left on a power play for Sudbury. He fired a slap shot from the point, beating Jacob Ingham.
It was Wilkie’s second of the season.
The second period was a little different with penalties and scoring from the Steelheads.
With the Wolves leading 1-0, Stephen Gibson pounced on a rebound at the side of the net to make it 1-1.
A few minutes later, as a Wolves power play expired, Owen Tippett broke out on a two-on-one with Aiden McFarland.
Tippett slid a beautiful pass through the legs of the Wolves defender to the stick of McFarland, who scored.
Michael McLeod scored four minutes later to make it 3-1.
The Steelheads started to look like the team who had not lost in regulation in their last seven games.
But Dmitry Sokolov got the Wolves back.
He circled around the left slot area and waited for Ingham to make a mistake, and he did, bringing his arm he was using to cover the right post down.
Sokolov fired a wrist shot over the right shoulder of Ingham for his 33rd of the season.
His teammates are no longer shocked with what Sokolov is capable of.
“After seeing what he’s done over the last two years, even when we were going through that hard streak last year, he was still putting the puck in the back of the net. I think he’s stepped up for sure this year. He’s led by example with the goal-scoring ability. Everybody just wants to give him the puck, because they know that puck has a chance of going in,” said Wilkie.
There were 11 combined penalties in the second period and the Wolves trailed 3-2.
The third saw no penalties and a lucky goal from Lyszczarczyk.
Macauley Carson won the draw back to Lyszczarczyk, who tried to shoot the puck in deep, but it flew like a frisbee over the shoulder of the goalie to tie the game up.
It was just Lyszczarczyk’s second goal in his last 20 games.
“It’s a great feeling. I try to work hard and play a clean game and shoot the puck to the net,” said Lyszczarczyk.
His coach was happy to see a break go his way.
“I’m happy to see Al get the game winner and the game-tying goal. He really needed that sort of boost of confidence,” said Matsos.
“Alan hasn’t let us down as far as his work ethic goes.”
Lyszczarczyk scored in the shootout as the fourth shooter, and Jake McGrath stopped Nicolas Hague on the other end to win the game.
The crowd, which seems to be getting bigger and bigger, was treated to a great game and the players are noticing.
“The crowd is a big influence on us. When the crowd is behind us, and they have been all year, it just makes us come to the game, play as hard as we can, and even if we end up losing a game, fans are still behind us no matter what. That’s been a huge difference this year I feel,” said Wilkie.
“This crowd is unbelievably loud, even playing in Niagara, I don’t think the crowds were as loud as Sudbury.”
The Wolves play next in North Bay on Jan. 19.
