Wolves Outwork Petes
The Sudbury Wolves opened up their weekend schedule Friday night when they hosted the Peterborough Petes for the first time this season. The Wolves were looking to get back in the win column tonight after two tough overtime losses last weekend on the road after having come from behind in both games.
Friday night’s matchup between the Petes and Wolves surely left fans in excitement for more OHL Hockey, as both teams left everything on the ice and there was no backing down from either side in Friday night’s affair. This game included everything from goals to big hits and fights and had excitement in all departments.
The Wolves set the pace Friday when they took an early lead, as newly assembled and dominate line combination consisting of CONNOR CRISP, JACOB HARRIS & DOMINIK KUBALIK had no trouble finding the twine only 23 seconds into the game.
The Petes would respond with a goal minutes later with a goal by MICHAEL CLARKE. After the first period, the Petes outshot the Wolves an astounding 15-5. However, FRANKY PALAZZESE proved he deserved the start in goal.
Early in the second period, NICHOLAS BAPTISTE was tripped up on a breakaway and the referee flagged a penalty shot in favour of the Wolves. Baptiste made no mistake finding the back of the net and brought the Wolves back in the lead.
As the period progressed, Wolves forward, MATHEW CAMPAGNA was called for hooking and allowed the Petes to work their special teams unit in the offensive zone. Petes defensemen BRANDON DEVLIN scored to even the score up at 2 on the man advantage.
Both teams were showing their offensive skills as the period progressed, closing the 2nd period up at a score of 3-3. Goaltender FRANKY PALAZZESE kept his composure having already faced 25 shots in only 40 minutes of play.
The difference came in the 3rd period when the Wolves veterans’ took leadership and displayed true grit scoring 4 goals in the final period of play. One of the goals came from the stick of the Wolves 2012 1st Round Draft pick and defenseman CONNOR CUMMINS at the blue line. This goal marked his first career OHL goal and his first goal of the season.
Late in the third, Nicholas Baptiste secured the win for the Wolves as he found the empty net to mark his third of the night and make it a final score of 7-4.
The Wolves are back in action tomorrow night as they travel to Barrie to meet their divisional rival, the Barrie Colts for the second time this season at the Barrie Molson Centre. Game time is set for 7:30pm. Fan can tune into Stew Kernan on KFM 95.5 with the live play-by-play.
Your MOLSON CANADIAN Three (3) stars were:
1 – Nicholas Baptiste
2 – Dominik Kubalik
3 – Stefan LeBlanc
