The Sudbury Wolves had every reason to believe that their round two matchup with the North Bay Battalion would represent a notable leap forward in terms of both competitiveness and intensity from their first round series with the Mississauga Steelheads.

Game one Thursday night in North Bay only served to reinforce that opinion.

Though the teams were sitting dead even at 2-2 midway through the contest, it was the Battalion that would convert on their chances in the second half of the game, pulling away with a 5-2 win.

Andrew LeBlanc netted the only goal of the opening frame, picking up his first of two on the night - the first two goals of his OHL playoff career.

A nifty passing play allowed the Wolves to knot the game at 1-1 on the power play early in period two as David Goyette completed the tic-tac-toe with Quentin Musty and Dalibor Dvorsky.

Justin Ertel restored the North Bay lead just 37 seconds later but Musty would counter that, making great use of his decoy on a two and one and picking the far corner for his second tally of 2024 post-season play.

From there, it was largely Battalion as LeBlanc netted the game-winner (16:05 - 2nd), with Ethan Procyszyn adding a key insurance marker (6:49 - 3rd) before Dalyn Wakely iced the contest with an empty-net goal in the final minute.

With Jakub Vondras still sidelined, Marcus Vandenberg (22/26) could not match his rival at the other end of the rink as Mike McIvor earned second star status with a 27-save performance, including a few critical stops in the game's final thirty minutes.

The teams are back at it for game two in North Bay Saturday night with games three and four set for Sudbury next Tuesday (April 16th) and Thursday (April 17th).

In other current OHL news, the Wolves have selected Sault Ste Marie defenseman Luca Blonda with their first round pick (12th overall) in the 2024 OHL Entry Draft.

The smooth-skating blueliner who was part of an impressive northern Ontario selection of talent that captured the DraftdayHockey 2008 Prospects Tournament in Toronto two years ago this time under coach Trevor Blanchard suited up with the Pittsburgh Penguins Elites for the 2023-2024 season.

In fact, the early tone of the draft, from a local perspective is that the north still produces talent - they just don't play in the north in the years leading up to the draft.

Evan Headrick from Garden River was selected 15th overall by the Kitchener Rangers after spending this past winter with the Oakville U16 AAA Rangers while Manitoulin native and former Nickel City Sons' sniper Kohyn Eshkawkogan (North York U16 AAA Rangers) was taken by the Ottawa 67's with the final pick of round one.