A broke-down bus didn’t stop the Sudbury Wolves from skating their fifth straight win when they defeated the Brampton Steelheads 8-6 on March 11,
Finn Marshall once again got the start in goal for the Sudbury Wolves while Brayden Gillespie was the starting goaltender for the Steelheads.
The start of the game was delayed by 15 minutes due to the Wolves arriving to the CCA Centre in Brampton late after their bus broke down.
At the 8:11 mark of the opening period with Jack Ziliotto serving a hooking penalty for Sudbury, Angus MacDonnell tipped a shot by Jakub Fibigr on the power play for his 25th goal of the season, giving the Steelheads a 1-0 lead.
Just 15 seconds later, Carson Rehkopf shot the puck through a screen behind Marshall for his 40th goal of the season, giving Brampton a 2-0 lead.
With 4:29 remaining in the first, Sudbury finally got on the board when Quentin Musty received a pass from Chase Coughlan to score his 28th goal of the season, cutting Brampton’s lead to 2-1.
Sudbury tied the game with exactly three minutes left to play in the first period when Jack Ziliotto received a short pass from Henry Mews for his fifth goal of the season to tie the game 2-2.
With under two minutes left in the first, Luke Misa stole the puck from Wolves’ captain Donovan McCoy and scored his 33rd goal of the season, giving Brampton a 3-2 lead after a very exciting first period of hockey.
The second period was filled with even more action, starting with a goal just eight seconds into the period, when Nathan Villeneuve scored his 33rd goal of the season on the power play, creating a breakaway off the first faceoff to tie the game 3-3.
At the 1:26 mark of the middle frame, Quentin Musty and Kieron Walton played a game of give-and-go which ended up with Musty scoring his second goal of the game and giving Sudbury a 4-3 lead.
Fifteen seconds later, Hudson Chitaroni deposited the puck behind Gillespie for his ninth goal of the season, increasing the Wolves’ lead to 5-3 and signaling the end of the night for the starting goaltender.
With 9:10 remaining in the middle frame, Lucas Di Giantommaso scored his eighth goal of the season when he picked his own rebound off the post, widening Sudbury’s lead to 6-3.
With Brampton’s Troy Patton serving a penalty for hooking, Chase Coughlan scored his 23rd goal of the season on the power play when he tipped a shot behind Jack Ivankovic giving Sudbury a 7-3 lead.
With 3:07 left in the second and Henry Mews serving a holding penalty for Sudbury, Lucas Karmiris worked his way into the zone and put the puck past Marshall for his 10th goal of the season, making the score 7-4 for the Wolves.
With just one second left in the middle frame, Brampton closed the gap to 7-5 when Luke Misa scored his second goal of the game with a hard slap shot, and that’s where the teams stood after a seven-goal second period.
Brampton made the game interesting 8:11 into the third period when Gabriel Chiarot scored his 16th goal of the season with a backhand shot, making the score 7-6 for the Wolves.
Rowan Henderson added an empty net goal for his ninth goal of the season to seal an 8-6 victory for the Sudbury Wolves over the Brampton Steelheads.
With the win, the Sudbury Wolves find themselves in third place in the Central Division and sixth place in the Eastern Conference with just six games remaining in the regular season.
The Sudbury Wolves improved their record to 31 wins, 26 regulation losses, and five overtime losses
The Sudbury Wolves are back home on March 14 for a game against the Brantford Bulldogs with puck drop scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
Super fan Robert McCarthy covers Sudbury Wolves and Sudbury Five games for Sudbury.com. Got a question for Robert? Email it to [email protected].