Wolves Weather the Storm
The Sudbury Wolves were playing their second game of a double header home weekend on Saturday night as they hosted the Guelph Storm. The Pack was looking to rebound from a tough outing against the Belleville Bulls on Friday night, and ended up winning a wild one by a final score of 7 – 6.
Like the night before, the Wolves jumped out to an early 1 – 0 lead just 0:39 seconds into the game on a goal by JUSTIN SEFTON (ERIC O’DELL, MARCUS FOLIGNO). The Storm responded less than 2 minutes later to even things up 1 – 1. The Wolves regained the lead a short time later on a goal by FOLIGNO (ANDREY KUCHIN, O’DELL) only to see the Storm tie it up again a minute later. The Pack regained their one goal lead at the 14:51 mark of the opening frame with a goal by MIKE LOMAS (MICHAEL MACDONALD, RYAN HANES) and took the 3 – 2 lead into the first intermission.
The Wolves came out with more pressure in the second period, adding two goals to their lead by the midway point of the period. Scoring for the Wolves were JOSH LEIVO (MATHEW CAMPAGNA, HANES) on a clean breakaway pass from Campagna, and O’DELL (FOLIGNO, KRISTOFF KONTOS) with a powerplay marker and his 8th goal on the season. The Storm netted a goal in the final minute of the frame but the Wolves had a 5 – 3 lead to start the third period.
As the final period started, the Storm continued with their momentum swing from the second period and scored two quick goals to tie the game early in the period before adding the go-ahead marker at the 16:42 point of the period. Just 12 seconds later though, GREGORY JAMBROSICH (JOSH MCFADDEN, CHARLIE DODERO) tied the game 6 – 6, bring Wolves fans to their feet. The game appeared to be headed to overtime as the Wolves penalty killing unit was on for the final minute of regulation, however, MACDONALD was able to break through and scored a shorthanded marker with 2.5 seconds left in the game to give the Wolves the 7 – 6 victory.
It was a tough night for the goaltenders as ALAIN VALIQUETTE made 37 saves for the Wolves in the win, while the Storm tandem of Garret Sparks and Brandon Foote combined to make 23 saves in the loss.
The game’s three stars were MICHAEL MACDONALD (1) with the game winning goal and an assist, TYLER BECK (2) with two goals for the Storm, and JUSTIN SEFTON (3) who was an assist away from the Gordie Howe hatrick as he scored his first goal of the season, and won his fight against Michael Latta.
The Wolves next game is on the road on Tuesday, February 1, 2011 as they travel to the Soo for the next installment of the BELL CHALLENGE CUP. Game time is 7:00pm and fans can get the live call from STEW KERNAN and TODD GALE by tuning into 95.5 KFM or the online cybercast.
The Wolves next home action will be on Friday, February 4, 2011 as they host former Wolves John McFarland and Ben Chiarot. Game time is 7:30pm.
