The game was over, down 4-1 in the third period against the top team in the OHL, the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
But for the Sudbury Wolves it wasn’t as they stayed in the game and scored three unanswered to force overtime only to lose in the final minute of the extra frame.
In the end it was turnovers that did the Wolves in, three goals were scored on a breakaway and two came shorthanded for the Greyhounds.
But after the game it was picking up the point that had the Wolves coaching staff and players happy.
“If we play this style and this hard, and our D zone is this clean the rest of the way in, I can live with those little hiccups and unforced errors and those sorts of things. If we give that effort level and play that way we’ll just be just fine,” said Head Coach David Matsos.
“I’m really proud that these guys battled back, they deserved a point out of this one,” said Matsos.
A couple Greyhound goals were off mistakes and a few just off of bad bounces, but the fight is what C.J. Yakimowicz loved from his teammates.
“It was a good comeback by the boys to be able to come back like that and force overtime. There was some unfortunate bounces, a couple breakaways for them and just some back luck. Everyone stuck to it and nobody gave up and everyone kept kicking and we ended up tying it up,” said Yakimowicz.
Michael Pezzetta, who scored his sixth of the season in the rally, believes this will only benefit the team if they make the playoffs.
“I think this is just one of the many times that we’ve done that, I think those are just tough goals and I think we’ve got a room that we just put those behind us, there’s nothing we could do. Until the end of the game we all thought we could win the game, we kept on the gas and all the boys were just so excited. We’re scoring those goals, we see the entire bench jumping up,” said Pezzetta.
Sudbury came into the game in a tie for first in the Central Division with 38 points, the Greyhounds sat first in the OHL with 60 points.
“We grinded out a good hockey team tonight, like that team is number one in the OHL and if you take away they’re power plays I don’t know how many grade A scoring chances they had five-on-five. We played a very clean hockey game tonight apart from those small little unforced errors,” said Matsos.
It’s not the first time the Wolves played well against their northern rival either, they have picked up points in all three games this season including two wins.
But Matsos didn’t chalk it up to coming ready to play, but rather the difference in style of play.
“It’s like oil and water, us and them, we play a completely different style than they do and if we tried to play their style it would have been a disaster. We just have to stick to our game plan and contain them playing our way,” said Matsos.
Speaking of playing well - sorry, playing out of this world - is Dmitry Sokolov.
The Russian winger scored two goals for the fifth straight game.
He now has 32 goals which puts him third in the OHL. His coach jokingly said he better spread some love around.
“He’s got to be careful or we’re going to lean on him for 27 more games, he’s got to score two every game,” said Matsos.
Here’s how it all went down.
The first period flew by with no penalties and a few good chances from both sides.
The Wolves waited patiently until the last seconds of the period to strike, and who else, Dmitry Sokolov.
Aiden Jamieson fired a shot from the point that hit off the left pad of Joseph Raaymakers and right onto the stick of Sokolov who snapped home his 31st on the season.
It was a perfect example of getting pucks on the net and good things will happen.
“We hit the net well tonight, it started with Jamieson, I didn’t know he could take a slap shot to be honest. He can actually hit it pretty hard, but it resulted in a goal and good things happen when you get pucks to the net,” said Matsos.
Macauley Carson had a great chance for the Sudbury Wolves early in the second period.
A pass came from behind the net out front to Carson who fanned on the initial shot which went into the pad of Raaymakers, he got a chance on the rebound but fanned on that as well.
The Wolves then had another chance this time on a four-on-two.
But it an errant pass set up a breakaway for Tim Gettinger who made no mistake to tie the game up at 1-1.
The Wolves then were on a power play when a pass around the board from Sudbury skipped pass a couple Wolves and set up a three-on-zero shorthanded opportunity.
Blake Speers kept it and went five-hole on McGrath to make it 2-1.
The Greyhounds then added an insurance marker when Boris Katchouk carried the puck out from behind the net to the left circle and fire a wrist shot to make it 3-1.
That’s how the second ended although Sudbury was still outshooting their opponent 27-20.
It didn’t take long in the third for the Greyhounds to find the net again and for the second time, shorthanded.
Jake McGrath came out to play the puck and turned it over to Jack Kopacka who scored to make it 4-1.
The Wolves have now given up 13 shorthanded goals on the year which is the worst in the OHL by three goals.
His coach was quick to come to his defense.
“We got a young guy in net that is going to figure these little things out and when he needed to make saves on our kill did,” said Matsos. “This is him getting a taste of what it’s going to be like to be a number one, there’s going to be a bit of turbulence throughout the course of the game and he faced a bit of turbulence. It would have been easy for the mental side of it for him to have a tough time battling back after the shorthanded goal but he found a way.”
Just when it looked like it was over the Sudbury Wolves stormed back.
Michael Pezzetta poked the puck past a Soo defensemen at the blue line to give himself a breakaway and he scored his sixth of the season.
It was just one goal back, but now the Wolves had momentum. Dmitry Sokolov scored his second of the game off a one-timer from a beautiful pass by David Levin.
That made it 4-3 with 3:03 left in the third. Then with the Wolves net empty Ryan Valentini clapped a one-timer home on a pass from Sokolov and David Levin. Extra hockey was free for fans.
The Wolves had a few chances, none better than Zach Wilkie who pretended he was at Queen’s Athletic Skating Oval as he circled the Greyhounds net twice and found himself wide open, but Raaymakers came up big.
A turnover by Levin sprung David Miller on a breakaway and Miller ended it with his 15th.
Soklov finished with three points, Levin and Valentini both had two.
The Wolves who had played four straight Western Conference teams now will take on two very important Eastern teams, North Bay on Friday and Mississauga on Sunday afternoon, both at home.
“Big weekend, it’s kind of nice to be done with the Western teams now, getting back to the Eastern swing. Big two division games Friday and Sunday and we’ll be ready,” said Yakimowicz.
