The Sudbury Wolves were on home ice in front of 3,059 fans on Wednesday night, hoping to get a huge win against rivals the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
The Wolves went with Marcus Vandenberg as their starting goaltender while the Soo went with Charlie Schenkel.
Just over two minutes into the game the Soo took an early 1-0 lead with Travis Hayes’ 11th goal of the season.
With 11:05 remaining in the opening period Hayes scored his 2 nd of the game, and 12th goal of the season, to put the Greyhounds ahead 2-0 over the Sudbury Wolves.
Nathan Villeneuve scored his 15th goal of the season with 9:43 to go in the first period for the Wolves to pull Sudbury within 1, now down 2-1.
Just over a minute later Jack Beck scored his 19th goal of the season for the Greyhounds to give the Soo a 3-1 lead after the first 20 minutes of play.
After the third goal for the Hounds Wolves Head Coach Ken MacKenzie replaced Vandenberg with Carolina Hurricanes prospect Jakub Vondras in goal.
There was no scoring again until the 10:37 mark of the second period when Donovan McCoy scored his seventh goal of the season to pull Sudbury within a goal, making the score 3-2 for Sault Ste. Marie.
At the 13:37 mark of the middle frame St. Louis Blues prospect Dalibor Dvorsky score his 27th goal of the season to tie the game for the Wolves, 3-3.
16 seconds later the Greyhounds would retake the lead with Christopher Brown’s 4 th goal of the season to make the score 4-3 for the Soo.
Nathan Villeneuve scored his second goal of the game for the Wolves to once again tie the game at four goals apiece with 3:44 remaining in the second period.
With 1:38 left in the middle frame Jacob Frasca scored his 10th goal of the season to give the Greyhounds a 5-4 lead with one period left to play in the game.
Sudbury Wolves forward and Seattle Kraken prospect David Goyette scored his 29th goal of the season at the 12:08 mark of the third period to tie the game 5-5.
33 seconds later Donovan McCoy scored his second of the game to put the Wolves ahead of the Greyhounds 6-5, which proved to be the game winner as the Sudbury Wolves take a home victory, 6-5 over the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
With the win, the Sudbury Wolves now hold a record of 28 wins, 15 losses, three overtime losses and 2 shootout losses, good for first place in the Central Division, first place in the Eastern Conference, and third place in the Ontario Hockey League.
The Sudbury Wolves next take the ice on Friday, Feb. 9 at home against the Niagara IceDogs with a puck drop scheduled for 7:05 p.m. before hitting the road for an afternoon game on Sunday, Feb. 11 in Mississauga to take on the Mississauga Steelheads with a scheduled start time of 2 p.m.
Super fan Robert McCarthy covers Sudbury Wolves games for Sudbury.com. Got a question for Robert? Email it to [email protected].
