Territorial speaking, it was advantage Wolves through the opening thirty to forty minutes of hockey Sunday afternoon at the Sudbury Arena.

A relentless wave after wave style of play had the local juniors outshooting the visiting North Bay Battalion 22-14 and certainly enjoying more of the quality scoring opportunities.

But thanks to a more than solid performance between the pipes from North Bay netminder Dom DiVincentiis and the Sudbury Wolves' propensity to misfire on their chances, just enough so that the Winnipeg Jets' prospect could be very good but not spectacular, the home side would lead only 1-0 going into the third.

The above-noted combination would come back to bite the Pack – well, you know where – as Dalyn Wakely converted in the opening minute of the third with his team on the power play and Iggy Pazii found just enough room above the shoulder of goaltender Jakub Vondras to score the game-winner from a bad angle with under four minutes to play, allowing North Bay to escape with a 2-1 win.

“I thought early on, halfway through the second, we had a lot of chances that we didn’t execute on,” suggested Sudbury head coach Ken MacKenzie. “We turned the puck over in the neutral zone, very unlike us, often with the man advantage. Those are the little things that add up.”

“They have a great goaltender and we had some quality chances that we just didn’t get to the net with.”

The line of David Goyette, Kocha Delic and Evan Konyen were kept off the scoresheet in game two after combining for ten points on Friday with the only Sudbury goal on Sunday coming in the final minute of the opening frame, thanks to a heads up read from Andre Anania and a bit of a break at the other end of the rink.

Picking up a redirected puck from Vondras behind his own goal line, Anania would spring Nick Yearwood at the far blue line. The 19 year-old forward would partially fan on his breakaway attempt but then got his stick on it, just enough to fool DiVincentiis as the puck slid softly between his pads.

Still, for as much as the Wolves enjoyed plenty of O Zone time, they didn’t have a whole lot to show for it for the next 20 minutes or more.

“Our offense has to be part of our DNA,” said MacKenzie. “We have to score some goals. As good as their goaltender is, I didn’t think we executed well on the chances we had.”

And while the long-time OHL bench boss recognizes that this is only game two of the season, with the Wolves still awaiting the return of NHL first rounder Quentin Musty and newly-acquired defenceman Nick DeAngelis and injury returnee Nolan Collins both playing their first game of the year for the Wolves, he also acknowledged that there is a need for urgency, from start to finish of a campaign in which much is expected of this team.

“Every point during the year is important, especially at home,” said MacKenzie. “We don’t want anyone leaving here with points. As well as we might have played, it wasn’t good enough. We didn’t get any points. But will we build from this?”

“100%.”

As for the afore-mentioned DeAngelis, the 19 year-old acquired from the Windsor Spitfires and cost the Wolves young blueliner Conor Walton, two second round picks (Niagara in 2024; Windsor in 2026), a third (Guelph in 2025) and a sixth (Sudbury in 2025), MacKenzie was more than encouraged with what he saw.

“He’s very good defensively and moves the puck up the ice well,” said the coach. “We went over our systems and you can see that he picks up on everything really quick. He’s a very smart player and he is going to be very good for us.”

A second round pick of the Spitfires in 2020, DeAngelis wasn’t about to contradict a whole lot of that assessment. “I like to keep it simple and get the puck to our forwards,” said the native of King City who just recently returned from the Columbus Blue Jackets' camp that also included Kocha Delic – and has also enjoyed previous hockey cross-connections with Nick Yearwood, Nolan Collins and Andre Anania as well.

“I just want to make sure that I am doing my job, doing my part. Once I get more comfortable with the team, I can start trying more stuff.”

“Our forwards here are obviously very talented,” DeAngelis added. “I want to make sure I am a shutdown guy, not let them have too many opportunities, make sure the puck is out of our net and let our forwards do their thing.”

And in most games, Sunday afternoon against North Bay notwithstanding, doing their thing will mean scoring more than just a single goal.