It was a goaltenders’ battle at the Memorial Gardens in North Bay on Sunday afternoon as the Sudbury Wolves visited arch rival the North Bay Battalion.
Marcus Vandenberg got the start for the Wolves while the Troops put Dom DiVincentiis in between the pipes.
It didn’t take the Wolves long to light the goal lamp in this one as Dalibor Dvorsky scored his 38th goal of the season for the Wolves, getting Sudbury off to an early 1-0 lead 3:53 into the opening period.
Twenty-six seconds later Brice Cooke for North Bay scored his 13th goal of the season to tie the game 1-1, and that is how the first period ended.
North Bay grabbed the lead 47 seconds into the second while on the power play. Sandis Vilmanis scored his 31st goal of the season to make the score 2-1 for the Battalion.
Sudbury native Alex Pharand scored his 14th goal of the season with 12:28 remaining in the second to tie the game for the Wolves at two goals apiece.
With 6:06 left in the middle frame Vilmanis scored his second goal of the game, and second power play goal, to restore North Bay’s lead at 3-2 with one period left to play in the game.
With just under a minute and a half remaining in the game, and no goals in the third period up until that point, Justin Ertel scored his 25th goal of the season on an empty net to give the North Bay Battalion the 4-2 win over the Sudbury Wolves.
With the loss, the Sudbury Wolves hold a record of 35 wins, 20 regulation losses, four overtime losses, and three losses on the season, good for first place in the Central Division, first place in the Eastern Conference, and fifth place in the Ontario Hockey League with only six games to go in the regular season.
The Sudbury Wolves are back home on March 15 for what promises to be a spirited contest against the Oshawa Generals. Game time is 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].
