Wolves edge Battalion 4-3
NORTH BAY, Ont. — Adam Nemec scored one goal and added two assists to pace the Sudbury Wolves to a 4-3 Ontario Hockey League victory Thursday night over the North Bay Battalion in the opener of a home-and-home series.
Jan Chovan provided one goal and one assist, while Tanner Adams and Kash Kwajah also scored for Sudbury, which got 37 saves from goaltender Paolo Frasca.
Sudbury, which had lost its previous two games, moved its won-lost-extended record to 8-2-1 for 17 points atop the Central Division.
Rene Van Bommel, Shamar Moses and Evgeny Dubrovtsev scored for the Battalion, which wore its Centurion uniforms, as goaltender Mike McIvor made 24 saves before 2,703 at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens for the Rivalry Week clash.
North Bay suffered a third straight loss and is 4-8-0 for eight points, third in the division. In the teams’ initial meeting, the host Battalion handed the Wolves their first loss, a 4-3 overtime verdict Oct. 8.
Making his OHL debut was free agent George Lovell, 19, whom the Battalion claimed Saturday on Canadian Hockey League waivers from the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League’s Moncton Wildcats. Signed to an education and development agreement Wednesday, he played last season with the Sioux City Musketeers and Omaha Lancers of the United States Hockey League, scoring three goals and adding two assists for five points in 33 games.
“We were just off on different reads and different sorting-outs,” said Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen. “We had energy and then we had a lot of momentum, and then a big blunder would happen, and I felt like we gave them a couple of freebies. That team, especially that top line, is super talented and skilled, and you just can’t give them those freebies.”
Sudbury, which led 3-2 at the second intermission, got what proved to be the winning goal from Kwajah at 9:01 of the final period when he snapped the puck past McIvor from the top of the left circle off a rush after some concerted pressure by the Troops. Mason Walker and Liam Ladds assisted on rookie Kwajah’s fourth goal of the season.
With McIvor gone for a sixth skater, Dubrovtsev struck for his team-leading ninth goal on a backdoor play deep in the left circle at 17:35 off a pass from Cam Warren, but the Troops couldn’t find the equalizer.
After the teams battled to a 1-1 tie through 20 minutes, Adams scored at 4:45 of the second period, tapping the puck home at the left post after two cross-ice passes. Nemec and Chovan assisted on rookie Adams’s third goal.
Moses replied on the power play at 6:32, drilling the puck home off a rush after Arseny Pronin carried it up the ice. It was the fifth goal for Moses, who has 30 goals and 70 assists for 100 points in 192 OHL games, including 75 points in 121 games with North Bay.
Nemec gave Sudbury its third lead at 10:19, racing off on a breakaway out of the penalty box with a stretch pass from Rowan Henderson to crash into the net with the puck. It was Nemec’s third goal.
Chovan opened the scoring at 4:05 of the first period, slipping across the goalmouth with his back to the net and tipping a drive by Jean-Christoph Lemieux. Nemec also assisted on Chovan’s fourth goal.
Van Bommel tied it at 8:12, racing to corral a long dump-in by Aaron Enright off the end boards and darting across the crease to backhand the puck past Frasca. It was Van Bommel’s first goal since an Aug. 4 trade from the London Knights.
The Battalion visits Sudbury at 7:05 p.m. Friday. The game can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.
BATTALION BULLETS: On Rivalry Night presented by FCR, the Battalion wore warmup sweaters to be auctioned, with proceeds to the 2027 Special Olympics Provincial Winter Games set for Jan. 28-31 at North Bay … Custom Battalion sweaters worn Sunday on Indigenous Youth Day resulted in $7,680.40 raised for Niijaansinaanik Child and Family Services … Lovell, a five-foot-six, 141-pound resident of Hingham, Mass., was the last pick, 36th overall, in the QMJHL’s American Draft in 2023 by the Quebec Remparts. He made Moncton in training camp last year but joined Sioux City … Pronin has a five-game points streak during which he has four goals and two assists for six points … Warren has a five-game points streak in which he has one goal and four assists for five points … Parker Vaughan saw the end of a five-game assists streak in which he had seven assists … Each team went 1-for-3 on the power play … Opening lines saw Warren centring left winger Pronin and right winger Moses, Dubrovtsev pivoting left winger Jax Pereira and right winger Vaughan and Nolan Laird centring left winger Van Bommel and right winger Ryder Carey. Lincoln Edwards centred left winger Lovell and right winger Kam Hodgson … Defence pairs had Enright with Hayden Barch, Jean-Samuel Daigneault with Carter Kunopaski and Alexander Karmanov with Oskar Konobelj … The Battalion scratched Kent Greer, Austin Brekelmans, Easton Poe, Nikolas Rossetto and Max Crete, who separated a shoulder in practice Wednesday.
