Ruff night for the Wolves
Brampton, ON- The Brampton Steelheads silenced the Sudbury Wolves, 8-1, after Angus MacDonell and Carson Rehkopf brought home hat tricks.
Coming off a close overtime loss to the London Knights the night before, the Steelheads looked to pivot back into the winning column as they took on the Wolves. In the last matchup between these teams, the Trout took an impressive 7-3 win to bring the series to 2-1 in favour of the Wolves.
Looking to tie the series, the Steelheads came out strong in the opening 20 minutes, generating good pressure and puck possession. Jack Ivankovic had the start between the pipes and immediately hopped into the action to make some incredible saves both in the first and throughout the game.
Ivankovic’s strength in net gave the Trout the power to establish an essential lead late into the period. Rehkopf got the game’s icebreaker with an unassisted, beautiful backhand. Picking up the puck in the Steelhead’s zone, Rehkopf went coast-to-coast as he sped into the offensive end, beating the defence and sending it top corner.
Rehkopf’s goal closed the period, setting up for a thrilling second period as the Wolves looked to tie the game while the Trout aimed to extend their lead. Things started early for the Steelheads as Ondrej Molnar’s goalie interference penalty put Brampton on the power play.
The man advantage set the Steelheads into action as MacDonell extended the score to two. In a tic-tac-toe play, Finn Harding sent the puck down low to Porter Martone, who fed it to MacDonell out front for the bar-down goal.
While the Trout had a two-goal lead, the Wolves did not back down easily as Chase Coughlan made it within one. Donovan McCoy sent a pass across to Trevor O’Dell at the blue line, who shot it hard on goal. Coughlan, waiting out front, deflected O’Dell’s shot into the net.
The one goal did nothing to deter the Trout as they went on to go seven unanswered. Mason Zebeski got the next goal with a tip off Spencer Sova’s shot from the point to close out the scoring for the second period.
Like the start of the second, the Steelheads got an early power play off O’Dell’s tripping penalty, setting them up to utilize special teams and get another goal. In a similar fashion to his first goal, MacDonell got a feed from Martone in the corner, allowing him to send it into the goal.
Rehkopf followed up MacDonell with another unassisted goal to make it 5-1. Picking the puck off the Wolves’ defence, he used his speed to get down low before firing it over the shoulder of Nate Krawchuk.
Not even two minutes later, the Steelheads extended their lead to six. Kieran Witkowski picked up the puck behind the net before setting an awaiting Macgregor Richmond for the one-timer out front.
In the remaining minutes of play, the Steelheads secured their 8-1 victory as MacDonell and Rehkopf each picked up consecutive hat tricks. MacDonell got the first hat trick of the night unassisted off a misplay from the Wolves. Picking up the unattended puck, he got the zone entry on the left side before driving the net and beating Krawchuk on the glove side.
Rehkopf shortly followed with his third of the night to get him the hat trick and close out the dominant Trout victory. Reed Gee sent the puck down low to Luke Misa, who sent it over to Rehkopf out front to finish the game.
The Steelheads will travel this week but return home on March 5th for their School Day game against the Oshawa Generals.
