Over the course of the first two months of the OHL season, the Ottawa 67’s have very gradually created some separation between themselves and the nine other Eastern Conference foes.

Sunday afternoon in the nation’s capital, it was a bit of a single game as a microcosm of the season for the OHL frontrunners, boasting a record of 19-4-0-0.

Deadlocked in a 1-1 tie with the visiting Sudbury Wolves midway through the contest, the 67’s took advantage of an instigating penalty to Sudbury defenceman Nolan Collins, scoring the game-winning goal on the power-play, adding an insurance marker 95 seconds later and piling on with a pair of tallies in the third in racking up a 5-1 win over coach Derek MacKenzie and company.

After picking up points in their first two stops of a four day eastern Ontario road swing, bouncing the Peterborough Petes on Thursday (6-4) and dropping a tough overtime encounter against the Kingston Frontenacs some 24 hours later (5-4), the Wolves would be held at three points to bring home – though MacKenzie noted that a better fate in the finale was not at all inconceivable.

“Hindsight is 20/20 and I am sure that (Nolan) Collins might have done that a different way if he could have, but in his defense, I strongly disagreed with the call and it might have been a different outcome if there was a different call,” said MacKenzie.

“For a better part of the game, I thought we were the better team.”

Facing an Ottawa team that had dropped just one game in eleven home encounters but were riding a three-game losing skid entering play on Sunday, the Wolves held the 67’s at bay for the bulk of an opening frame in which they outshot Ottawa 8-7.

Cameron Tolnai (Ottawa) opened the scoring in the final minute of the first, but Alex Pharand (Sudbury) got that one back with an unassisted effort at 11:57 of period two. Netting his 11th of the year after finding the back of the net only six times in a freshman split between the Hamilton Bulldogs and Sudbury Wolves, the local product trails only David Goyette (14) in the goal scoring parade for the Pack.

In the end, a pair of goals by Henry Mews, giving the 67’s leads of 2-1 and 3-1, would spell the difference as the contest featured a pair of fights, along with a game misconduct to Sudbury forward Marc Boudreau for delivering a check to the head.

“I think we may have gotten a little frustrated and discouraged and that’s where, as a team, we have to find a way to reset and keep chugging along,” said MacKenzie. “We were playing a good game.”

Rounding out the offensive output in the third were the Ottawa tandem of Tyler Boucher and Brad Gardiner as Sudbury overager Joe Ranger was tagged with the loss, stopping 18 of the 22 shots he faced (the Gardiner goal was an empty-netter with Sudbury on the PP).

The local juniors now embark on a four game homestand beginning Wednesday night as they play host to the North Bay Battalion, with coach MacKenzie looking to build on a number of facets of the game that he remains relatively pleased with to date.

“I continue to see our identity kind of evolving a little bit,” he said. “Coming into this game, a big part of our game is puck possession and I thought we had that over the five games (since he took over as head coach on November 18th).”

“We’ve talked about recognizing momentum, recognizing what we are doing well to earn points. I think that going into this road trip, we gave ourselves a chance to win in all three games and we did earn points in two of the three.”

With a current record of 7-11-3-0, the Wolves sit in eighth place in the conference, two points ahead of both the Oshawa Generals and Niagara Ice Dogs but trailing the Hamilton Bulldogs by that exact same margin.

In time, the hope is to separate themselves from that grouping, a vision that MacKenzie and company fully believe is achievable with this particular collection of talent.

“I love how respectful we are, but sometimes when we get on the ice, we have to understand that while you respect your opponent, when the puck drops, you still want to be a hard team to play against,” he said. “They’re learning that and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”