Wolves Pick Up Point in 2-1 Shoot-out Loss
Friday night hockey had the Wolves travel to London to take on Midwest Division rivals, the London Knights, for game one of a two game road swing. The Wolves made a comeback late in the third to tie up the game and force overtime. Antonio Stranges scored the only goal in the shoot-out to lift the Knights over the Wolves as they fell by a 2-1 final with shots on goal 40-26 in favour of the Knights. Blake Murray was the lone goal scorer for the Wolves and Owen Robinson and Kirill Nizhnikov both earned assists. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was named second star of the game for his outstanding performance.
Darian Pilon gave the Wolves a big chance early on when he broke out of formation and onto a breakaway with a mission to score but was unable to finish it off. A couple of lucky bounces later, Matthew Timms connected with Connor McMichael and opened the scoring for the Knights, giving them a 1-0 lead. Shots on net were 11-6 in favour of the Knights after one.
Luukkonen dealt with all the pressure in the second period as the Knights had no intention of slowing down. Alex Formenton scored from the slot when he went top shelf on UPL with a wrist shot and scored, however the goal was disallowed due to the play being offside. The Pilon twins had their second breakaway of the night, however, Raaymakers continued to stand tall between the posts and shut them down. During the remaining minutes of the period, UPL made critical saves to keep the Knights lead at one.
The battle royale continued into the final frame where Drake Pilon dropped the gloves with William Lochead. An offensive outburst struck for the Wolves when Blake Murray netted his fifth of the season late in the game to tie the score at one. With less than a minute remaining in the game, the Knights were all over the Wolves’ zone but the pack held on for the final minutes which pushed the game into overtime.
In the extra frame, the Wolves and the Knights fought hard. Liam Foudy was awarded a penalty shot late in overtime, but Luukkonen came up big with the save and pushed it to a shootout.
The Sudbury Wolves will be back in action November 10th as they make their way to Sarnia to take on the Sting at 7:05 pm. Fans can follow the Wolves on the road by tuning into the live play-by-play on CKLU 96.7 or by streaming it live on mixlr.com/sudburywolves.
