The Sudbury Wolves were not about to let this one slip away.

The local juniors, who are most surely every bit as frustrated as their fan base with their inability to hold on to third period leads, were full measure for a 7-1 win on the road over the Oshawa Generals Sunday night – the team that currently stands between them and a playoff berth as coach Derek MacKenzie and the lads break for Christmas.

On the heels of a tough 4-3 loss to the Mississauga Steelheads Friday in a contest in which the Wolves were up 2-1 after forty minutes of play, this bounce-back effort could not have come at a better time.

“I thought the guys understood the importance of the game,” said coach MacKenzie. “The guys could have got frustrated after the Mississauga game, but they got back to what we consider to be our game and it worked out well. We talked about wanting to go into the second half on a good note.”

Few will feel better than sophomore forward Kocha Delic as the Mississauga native broke free, enjoying a four-goal performance that nearly doubled his goal total on the 2022-2023 campaign to date.

In this particular contest, he had plenty of help.

Delic would net the only goal of the opening frame before Sudbury blew things open in the second, with Landon McCallum, Alex Assadourian, Delic – again and Matthew Mania all finding the back of the net before Luca D’Amato countered with only five seconds to play in the period.

Where it might be easy to think that the Wolves have had a tendency to lose some intensity at times when they are ahead, that’s not the opinion of the man to whom they answer. “I don’t think they have eased off the gas; I have been quite happy with their level of compete,” said MacKenzie.

“It’s more a matter of instilling that confidence to stick with the structure and stick with the work. On some nights, we’ve had some big breakdowns. Obviously not in this game; and (goaltender) Joe Ranger came up big when we needed him to as well.”

Though things got a little testy at times – Quentin Musty was assessed a match penalty for slew-footing, MacKenzie was given the heave-ho for voicing his displeasure, while four separate misconducts were assessed as well throughout the match – the Wolves returned to business in the third as Delic buried goals three and four in helping the Pack pull to within three points of the Gennies.

“We got up big and things got a little bit reckless,” said MacKenzie. “That’s going to happen when a team gets frustrated. We have to be ready to handle that.”

More than anything else, MacKenzie was pleased that his troops were rewarded for what was largely a very solid effort, from start to finish.

“When you look at some of the things that we have done over the course of the last three weeks, they should have added up to more wins than they did,” opined MacKenzie, his crew sitting with a record of 10-16-3-0.

“The way that we are trying to play, for the most part, should have produced more wins. Right now, the key is not to get frustrated. That’s kind of what we’ve been trying to preach.”

The Wolves will now break for ten days but then come back with three games in four days, travelling to North Bay to face the Battalion on December 28th, hosting that same opponent at home two days later and then hitting the road in the opposite direction for a New Year’s Eve afternoon battle with the Soo Greyhounds.