Shoot-Out Loss on Road
The Sudbury Wolves played one of their best road games of the season for 55 minutes, but the Niagara IceDogs showed why they are one of the most explosive teams in the OHL in the dying minutes of the game. With the Wolves leading 5-1 and less than five minutes remaining in the game, the Wolves were assessed a questionable too-many-men call. Niagara promptly scored on the power play making it 5-2. The goal seemed to spark the IceDogs as they kept applying more and more pressure and scored from a goal-mouth scramble 32 seconds later to make it 5-3.
The game stayed that way until the last 30 seconds where with the Niagara goaltender pulled, Dougie Hamilton scored from the point with a blast that eluded a screened Joel Vienneau. The IceDogs then won the ensuing face-off and Ryan Strome made a beautiful cross-ice pass to the league’s goal-scoring leader Brett Ritchie who made no mistake on the one-timer in beating Vienneau with just 7 seconds left on the clock.
A Niagara power play in overtime allowed the IceDogs to fire 7 more shots at Vienneau but the 20-year-old Wolves net minder held his ground and made some big saves. The IceDogs claimed victory in the shoot-out with Ryan Strome and Dougie Hamilton scoring on Vienneau and Wolves forwards Dominik Kahun and Mathew Campagna unable to score on the IceDogs rookie goaltender on two attempts.
The Wolves trailed 1-0 after the first period before the Wolves took a 4-1 lead after two periods on goals by Mathew Campagna, Dominik Kahun, Jacob Harris, Nathan Pancel and Nathan Cull. Shots on goal after two periods were 23-22 in favour of Sudbury. Shots on goal in the third period were pretty even until the final five minutes where the IceDogs outshot the Wolves 10-0 in the final four minutes and 7-1 in overtime. The Wolves went 0 for 5 on the power play while Niagara was 1 for 5 with the man advantage.
The loss was the Wolves eighth straight loss on the road and they will have another chance to break the nasty streak on Sunday afternoon when they take on the powerful Brampton Battalion at 2 p.m. Follow the Wolves on the road by tuning into the Wolves’ official radio station KFM 95.5 with Stew Kernan calling the play-by-play.
