The Sudbury Wolves were in action on Friday night, Dec. 8, against the visiting Niagara IceDogs after a daytime trade between the two made some noise, with Niagara sending goaltender Marcus Vandenberg to the Wolves in exchange for a pair of draft picks.
Owen Flores was the starting goaltender for the IceDogs while the Wolves set Jakub Vondras between the pipes.
Despite throwing everything they could at Flores, the Wolves weren’t able to score until the 14:32 mark of the opening period when Evan Konyen scored his 10th goal of the season to give Sudbury a first period 1-0 lead.
With 4:30 remaining in the period Matthew Mania received a five minute major penalty and a game misconduct for a cross-check. Then, with 2:28 remaining in the period, Andre Anania scored his second goal of the season for the Wolves to give Sudbury a 2-0 lead after the first 20 minutes of play.
Less than four minutes into the second period the IceDogs would put a goal past Vondras when Mathieu Paris scored his sixth goal of the season to cut Sudbury’s lead to 2-1.
With 14:02 to go in the second period Nolan Collins scored his first of two goals on the night, and fourth of the season, to restore Sudbury’s two goal lead, making it 3-1 Wolves. A little more than a minute later the IceDogs would strike again with a goal by Ryan Vannetten, his third of the season, to make the score 3-2.
At the 11:18 mark of the middle frame Landon McCallum put up his 10th goal of the season to increase the Wolves’ lead to 4-2.
Under 2 minutes later Nolan Collins scored his second of the game, and fifth of the season, to give Sudbury some insurance in the form of a 5-2 lead.
At the 14:11 mark of the period Sudbury would increase their lead even further with a goal from Nathan Villeneuve, his seventh of the season, to give the Wolves a big 6-2 lead with one period remaining in the hockey game.
Later, at the 7:23 mark of the third period Dalibor Dvorsky would continue his hot streak by scoring his 16th goal in just 19 games in a Wolves uniform, making the score 7-2 for Sudbury.
With exactly three minutes remaining, Andrew Wycisk scored his third of the season for the Dogs to make the score 7-3 for the Sudbury Wolves; not to be outdone, Kieron Walton scored his eighth of the season with only 50 seconds remaining to give Sudbury a five goal lead, with a score of 8-3.
Niagara would round out the scoring with a goal from Kevin He, his 13th of the season, to make the score 8-4 with just 28 seconds remaining.
But this is as close as Niagara would get, as the Wolves would go on to defeat the Niagara IceDogs by a score of 8-4.
The Wolves outshot the IceDogs by a margin of 50-24, with Flores making 42 saves in the loss.
With the win, the Sudbury Wolves now hold a record of 14 wins, 10 losses, two overtime losses, and one shootout loss on the season.
The Sudbury Wolves are back on the ice at home Sunday afternoon against former Sudbury Captain Jacob Holmes and the Kingston Frontenacs with a scheduled start time of 2:05 p.m. before hitting the road in the USA against the Flint Firebirds in Michigan on Friday, Dec. 15 at 7:05 p.m.
