The Sudbury Wolves fully expected a push from the Oshawa Generals Sunday afternoon.
Sitting in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, the Wolves are the next closest team to the cellar dwellers from Oshawa. To boot, the Gennies had spent all day Saturday in Sudbury, trying to wipe from their minds a humiliating 11-2 loss to the Soo Greyhounds Friday night in the Lock City.
Typically, this is the recipe for a team coming out with something to prove.
Yet it was Scott Barney's troops that netted the only goal of period one courtesy of Artem Gonchar and tripled their lead in the second as both Vladimir Provorov and Ethan Dean scored their first goals on the season.
It sure looked like the Wolves had weathered any kind of impending challenge, up 3-0 midway through the game and looking to be in complete control.
Yet just 64 seconds after the Dean tally, Onni Kalto would breathe some life into the Oshawa side, getting the visitors on the board. A little over a minute later and it was suddenly a one goal game at 3-2 as Owen Griffin solved Sudbury netminder Karsen Chartier.
Still, the locals were in decent shape, heading to the third up by one.
A laser from Luke Posthumus at 8:07 would mean that the Wolves now needed to shift their focus on ensuring they snagged at least one point from this critical matchup, especially given their one-time 3-0 lead.
But inopportune penalties from Nathan Villeneuve and Luca Blonda just 24 seconds apart - the first two infractions of the entire game - would lead to a pair of power play goals from Harrison Franssen and an empty-netter from Aiden O'Donnell sealed a 6-3 Oshawa win, leaving Sudbury still five points back of the Kingston Frontenacs in eighth place.
As rumours persist that the Wolves could / should look to trade their two most valuable assets - Nathan Villeneuve and Kieron Walton - in order to put some pieces in place towards a gradual rebuild, the team looks to another pair of games at home this weekend, with the Owen Sound Attack (17-12-0-2 - Friday) and Brampton Steelheads (12-14-2-1 - Sunday).
