Sudbury takes tainted overtime win
BRAMPTON, Ont. Kevin Baker scored at 8:37 of overtime to give the Sudbury Wolves a 3-2 victory over the Battalion in the opener of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series Thursday, the opening night of Ontario Hockey League playoff action.rrBaker, a Brampton resident, converted a pass from Rafal Martynowski on a two-on-one rush after Sudbury tied the game on a controversial goal, originally credited to Benoit Pouliot and later changed to Jonathan D’Aversa, at 11:44 of the third period.rrD’Aversa ended up with two goals and one assist for Sudbury, while goaltender Patrick Ehelechner made 32 saves. The fifth-seeded Wolves were the only OHL team not to win in overtime in the regular season.rrWojtek Wolski scored both goals for the fourth-seeded Battalion, which got 36 saves from goaltender Daren Machesney in a sparkling performance. rrWe got off to a slow start, and hopefully that was just nerves, said Battalion coach Stan Butler. rrThe way we look at it, you have to win four games to win the series and, while we’re disappointed we lost the first game at home, we can’t dwell on it. We know we’ve won a couple of games in their rink. We need to focus on bouncing back.”rrThe second game is scheduled at Sudbury at 7:30 p.m. Friday.rrThe Wolves struck first on the power play at 19:52 of the first period when defenceman D’Aversa’s wrist shot from the high slot hit a body in front and rolled over the goal line past Machesney’s outstretched arm.rrMachesney was especially sharp in the opening period, which saw the Troops outshot 17-6. He foiled Nick Foligno at the lip of the crease in the eighth minute, knocked away a Marc Staal shot through traffic in the 12th minute and stopped Bobby Chaumont in the 15th.rrIt’s my job to keep the team in it, said rookie Machesney. It helped to get a lot of work early. I wasn’t too nervous. I was confident going in.rrThe Battalion’s best scoring chance came in the eighth minute, but Tyler Harrison was unable to corral a loose puck in the crease after Ehelechner made a save on Wolski.rrAs far as late-period power-play scores were concerned, Wolski proved turnabout was fair play, tying the game on a man-advantage goal at 19:33 of the second frame. Wolski, advancing in the high slot, appeared to misfire on his initial shot but rifled a second effort between the legs of a screened Ehelechner. rrWolski put the Troops ahead 2-1 at 1:03 of the third period, seconds after Ehelechner foiled a streaking Luch Aquino. Harrison carried the puck behind the Wolves net and, while falling, fed it in front to Wolski, who whipped it into the open side.rrSudbury’s equalizer came after a shot by D’Aversa deflected off a leg high into the air. In a maze of bodies vying for the puck, Pouliot appeared to swat it into the net with his left hand.rrReferee Terry Hobor told off-ice officials that, in a deviation from policy, the official scorer rather than the referee should assign the goal. After reviewing video, OHL officials later changed the scoring play to an unassisted goal by D’Aversa. rrThe puck was up in the air, and I didn’t see it coming down, said Machesney, who immediately signalled that the purported goal had been gloved home. All I could see were Sudbury sweaters everywhere, then all of a sudden the puck came at me. I didn’t hear it hit any sticks. I just saw a lot of arms.rrBoth teams had scoring chances in the final minutes of regulation time. Wolski narrowly missed at the right post with the Troops on the power play in the 15th minute, and D’Aversa fired a shot off the crossbar in the 17th.rrTomas Stryncl, Graham McNabb, J.F. Houle, Scott Boomsma and Kyle Sonnenburg did not dress for the Battalion.rrSudbury scratched Troy Murray, Luke Dubbin, Jeff Christison and Keaton Turkiewicz.rrA simulcast of the Wolves’ radio account of Game 2 will be available on battalionhockey.com.rrBATTALION NOTEBOOK: Attendance was 2,833, the seventh-largest crowd in Battalion playoff history. It was the largest attendance for the first home game of a playoff year, surpassing the previous record of 2,596 set March 27, 2001, with the Guelph Storm as visitors The game was the second-longest in Battalion history. Rob Smith scored at 18:59 of overtime when the Troops beat the visiting Ottawa 67’s 4-3 in Game 2 of a conference quarterfinal on March 21, 2004 The Battalion was 1-for-4 on the power play. Sudbury went 1-for-3 … The Troops are 5-3 in series-opening games Wolski has 12 playoff goals, moving him into a tie with Raffi Torres atop the Battalion’s all-time postseason list. Wolski’s 15 playoff points have him tied with Jeff Bateman for fourth place on the club’s all-time postseason list Harrison’s assist was his 12th career playoff point, moving him into a tie with Lukas Havel for eighth place on the team’s all-time list Chaumont missed the net on a breakaway attempt with the Wolves shorthanded early in the second period Sudbury assistant coach Bob Jones, a member of the Battalion’s staff in 1999-00, is coaching against the Troops in the playoffs for the third straight season. Jones was an assistant with the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors, who twice eliminated the Battalion in five games in conference semifinals.r
