The Sudbury Wolves entered the weekend outside of the playoff picture, looking in - and exited the weekend sitting in seventh place, just two points back of the sixth place Hamilton Bulldogs.

Safe to say this was a very productive three game road swing for coach Derek MacKenzie and the boys.

The Wolves set the tone Friday night in St Catharines, scoring the first four goals of the game en route to a 5-2 decision over the Niagara Ice Dogs.

Another game, another early goal for the Wolves, this one courtesy of Nick DeGrazia just 62 seconds following the opening drop of the puck.

Up 1-0 after the opening twenty minutes, the Wolves came out strong again in the second period, with Marc Boudreau sandwiching a pair of snipes around a solo marker from Chase Coghlan as the Wolves led 4-0 just over halfway through the contest.

Goals by Declan Waddick and Andrew LeBlanc made things a little closer as the Dogs cut the Wolves advantage in half before Alex Pharand squashed the threat, netting his 17th of the year to close out the scoring.

Nate Krawchuk picked up the win between the pipes with a 26-save performance, enough to earn him the start again 24 hours later in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Once again, the Wolves came out of the room like they were shot out of a cannon, building up a 3-0 lead by the halfway mark of the first as Nick DeGrazia, Kocha Delic and Andre Anania all bested Erie Otters' starting goaltender Nolan Lalonde.

Despite finding themselves in last place in the Western Conference, the Otters clawed their way back into this contest as second period tallies from Sam Alfano and Cameron Morton reduced the deficit to just 3-2 heading to the third.

David Goyette scored twice in the first five minutes of the final frame, rebuilding the cushion the visitors enjoyed only to see Alfano, with his second, and Liam Gilmartin counter the Wolves offensive production.

Thankfully, that last goal came with just 38 seconds remaining as Krawchuk (38 saves) and the Wolves held on for a 5-4 win.

The Wolves opted to start overager Kevyn Brassard in net for game three, a decision that might have been questioned just 3:12 into the game (when Nick Lardis opened the scoring for the Hamilton Bulldogs), were it not for the fact that this would be the only goal that Brassard would allow, helping lead Sudbury to a 3-1 win.

In fact, Quentin Musty and Nicholas Yearwood flipped the script before the end of the first, giving the Wolves a 2-1 lead and Kocha Delic added a little insurance five minutes into the second as the visiting northerners limited the home side to just a grand total of 15 shots on net - for the entire game.

Getting ready for another three in three, albeit this one coming on a Thursday-Friday-Saturday sequence, the Wolves find themselves with a record of 24-24-5-3 (56 points), two back of Hamilton, two ahead of the Oshawa Generals in eighth place and now with a five point cushion over the reeling Kingston Frontenacs, losers of seven straight outings.