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Wolves lose a wild one to North Bay

Five goals but an overtime loss for the Wolves in a big divisional battle

It was the first meeting of the season between Central Division rivals North Bay Battalion and Sudbury Wolves and they scored enough to make up for lost time.

Double digit goals were scored between the two teams, but it was the 11th that mattered for North Bay as they beat Sudbury 6-5 ending a mini two game winning streak for the Wolves.

The Wolves were down early, battled back numerous times, but the one point was not satisfying for Wolves Head Coach David Matsos.

“I didn’t feel it with our guys tonight, right from wire to wire. I thought we played a pretty inspired game in Hamilton, thought they came out with more jump and enthusiasm and spark. They were sharper against Niagara at home on Sunday. Thought we were sloppy from wire to wire, all these guys on the staff should be grateful we came out with one point,” said Matsos.

He couldn’t pick out a positive from the night.

“I think it was everywhere, you give up two goals early in the game, two breakaways in the third,” said Matsos. I thought we were stale, didn’t like our game from start to finish,” said Matsos.

Reagan O’Grady, who had the game tying goal, thought the start was also what cost the game.

“It’s tough getting down two early in this league, unfortunately we started on the wrong foot and we kind of dug ourselves a bit of a hole. After the first period we really regrouped and got back into it, we came out and scored two right away. We have to be the better team tomorrow night,” said O’Grady.

“Bad start again, you can’t win games when you have a bad start. We have to play the way we play in the third period, high guy, hard back check, forecheck, that’s the way we’re playing and that’s how we’re going to win every game,” said David Levin.

The Wolves scored five goals for just the seventh time on the season.

“You score five goals at home, should be a slam dunk really, so I didn’t think we brought it one bit tonight. Like I said I think we should just be grateful we got one,” said Matsos.

David Levin had a wonderful opportunity to end the game in overtime and also pick up a hat-trick on the night.

He made a beautiful move around one player and was alone in front of the net, but decided to try shoot between his legs and was stopped.

It was not long after that the Battalion ended it.

“I would rather him just put it in the net, you work hard to make a nice move to beat a guy. You’ve got two, it’s a flashy player trying a flashy move and it didn’t end up working,” said Matsos.

After the game, despite getting three points on the night, Levin took responsibility.

“It was my mistake, I just had to score,” said Levin.

Matsos doesn’t believe this loss has anything to do with the four players out with suspension.

“We’ve managed the last six periods of hockey we’ve played and that was without those guys. The guys and the personnel that we have in our lineup right now are more than capable of going out and doing the job,” said Matsos.

But the good news, North Bay was the only team in the Central Division to win on the night, and Barrie rolls into town on Saturday night.

It’s time to bounce back.

“It’s big, thats the thing, we can sit and we’ll talk about this one right now, but we have to get this out of our head tonight when we go to bed because at the end of the day we get two points tomorrow, we get seven of our last eight. That’s a pretty good run for a team that’s been depleted with leadership and older guys, a face off guy like Pezzetta. We can’t come out and play tomorrow night like we did tonight I can assure you that,” said Matsos.

O’Grady says it’s on the older players that are left to step up.

“It’s obviously tough that we lose in overtime, but it’s part of our leadership group, myself included, to get the boys back into it. The fans were very vocal tonight, we just got to play for them, but more importantly we got to play for the guys next to us and in that dressing room and if we do that I think we can be successful,” said O’Grady.

That slow start was mostly due to the play of Daniil Vertiy.

Just 1:22 into the first period a shot from Vertiy was put on net and Zack Bowman made the easy save but couldn’t cover up as Justin Brazeau whacked away pushing it into the net for his 5th of the season.

A couple minutes later Vertiy fired a wrist shot from the middle of the Sudbury zone top corner for his 4th.

The Wolves were able to respond on a beautiful give-and-go effort from David Levin and Alan Lyszczarczyk.

The Battalion turned it over as they were trying to exit their zone, Levin picked the puck up near the right circle.

He found Lyszczarczyk crossing the blue line and went straight to the side of the net where Lyszczarczyk found him, Levin made no mistake for his 8th of the year.

It didn’t take long for North Bay to answer and well, for Vertiy to answer.

3:26 later the third-year Russian winger fired another wrist shot top corner, this time from the right slot.

After one period the Battalion held a 3-1 lead and were outshooting Sudbury 13-11.

Coming into the game the Wolves were just 1-8-1 when trailing after the first.

The second period was a nice rebound for the Sudbury Wolves and for Dmitry Sokolov.

Sokolov scored his 17th on the year while on the power play making it a 3-2 game.

Then Macauley Carson lobbed a pass to spring Ryan Valentini on a break-away, but it was just out of his reach.

Valentini won the foot race and got the puck behind the net, meanwhile Sokolov was busy skating hard to join the rush.

Valentini fed Sokolov out front who deked out North Bay goalie Julian Sime and scored his 18th.

Both sides were quiet for a bit after the game was tied 3-3, but Brett Hargrave got the lead back for the Battalion.

Just over a minute after the Hargrave goal David Levin scored for the second time of the night.

Lyszczarczyk fed Levin out front and it was 4-4 after two period.

North Bay was 4-3 while being tied after two, while Sudbury was 1-3-1.

Midway through the third period North Bay won a face off, it went back to the point, was fired on net and tipped past Bowman by Kyle Potts.

After a lengthy review to see if it was a high stick that tipped it in, the referees signalled that it was a goal.

With the Wolves down one, they needed a rally and with just over two minutes to play they got one.

North Bay was inches away from clearing their zone and Kyle Capobianco just got to the puck beating a diving Battalion player.

He kept it in and the puck found Levin who centred to Reagan O’Grady who fired home his 4th on the year.

In overtime the Wolves had a number of great chances, none better than Levin’s.

Not long after that, Zack Bowman had the puck covered up for the Wolves, with no whistle, he gave it to Ryan Valentini, who got pushed off the puck and North Bay gained control.

A couple passes later and Adam McMaster ended the game, 6-5 for North Bay.

Final shots on goal was 37-28 for the Battalion.   

A good sign for Wolves fans was, Matsos back behind the bench for the first time since missing some time after spinal surgery.

He will be there once again as his Wolves take on Barrie at 7 pm on Saturday.

The last meeting between the division rivals was an 8-2 win for the Colts in Barrie.


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