The Sudbury Wolves were back home on Friday night for the first time since before Christmas for a matchup against Northern Ontario rivals the North Bay Battalion, hoping to send home 4,936 boisterous fans happy with a win.
Mike McIvor got the start in goal for North Bay while Marcus Vandenberg got the start for the Wolves.
Despite several high-quality scoring chances, the first goal didn’t come until more than 10 minutes into the first period when Kieron Walton scored his 10th of the season to give the Wolves a 1-0 lead.
Just under three minutes later Andre Anania increased Sudbury’s lead to 2-0 with his third goal of the season.
The Pack wasn’t done scoring just yet. At 14:28, David Goyette scored his 17th goal of the season to give Sudbury a 3-0 lead before the first intermission.
The Wolves lead 16-10 in shots after the first period.
Coming out of the dressing room for the second period with a comfortable three-goal lead, the Wolves didn’t rest on their laurels. Just 2:16 into the middle frame, Goyette scored his second of the game and 18th of the season to widen Sudbury’s lead to 4-0.
With fewer than 12 minutes remaining in the second, the Wolves would extend their lead even further. Nick DeAngelis scored his second of the season to make it a 5-0 Sudbury hockey game.
The Pack’s scoring punch just kept rolling in this one. Kieron Walton would score his second of the game at the 11:14 mark of the second period to further excite the crowd and give Sudbury a very commanding 6-0 lead.
Much like the rest of the team this game, Walton wasn’t done scoring just yet. With 3:37 remaining in the period, he would complete the hat trick and put the Wolves ahead of the Troops by a score of 7-0.
With 3:20 remaining in the second stanza, North Bay would finally find the back of the net with a goal from Anthony Romani, his 25th of the season, to make the score 7-1 for the Wolves.
Nine seconds later, Romani would do it all over again, scoring his second of the game and 26th of the season, to pull North Bay to a 7-2 deficit with one period remaining in the game.
Moving onto the third period with a secure five-goal lead, the Pack still had a little scoring touch left. Under four minutes into the final frame, Sudbury would score once again with a goal from Alex Pharand, his eighth of the season, putting Sudbury up by six once again, leading 8-2.
Sudbury was done scoring at this point, but North Bay still had a little scoring juice left. Just before the halfway mark of the third, Owen Van Steensel scored his 16th goal of the season for the Troops to cut the Wolves’ lead to 8-3.
The final goal of the game would come with 3:08 remaining. Dalyn Wakely notched North Bay’s last marker to make the score 8-4, but that is as close as they would get, as the Sudbury Wolves defeated the North Bay Battalion by a score of 8-4.
Marcus Vandenberg made 22 saves for the win in the Wolves net while Mike McIvor made 34 saves for North Bay in a losing effort.
North Bay went two for five on the Power Play, while Sudbury went one for seven.
With the win, the Sudbury Wolves now hold a record of 17 wins, 11 losses, three overtime losses, and two shootout losses on the season.
The Wolves will wrap up the 2023 portion of their season on the road as they take on the Soo Greyhounds in Sault Ste. Marie tonight (Dec. 30) with a scheduled start time of 7:07 p.m. before coming home for their first game in 2024 to face the Brantford Bulldogs on Jan. 5 with a scheduled start time of 7:05 p.m.
Super fan Robert McCarthy covers Sudbury Wolves games for Sudbury.com. Got a question for Robert? Email it to [email protected].
