In trading Kieron Walton, Nathan Villeneuve and Alex Pharand, the Sudbury Wolves waved goodbye to 50 goals (as at January 6th).

Heading into last Wednesday's matchup in Sault Ste Marie, the trio had accounted for 43.5% of the total team goals - leaving many to wonder where exactly the offense would come from as the now younger Wolves navigate their final 31 games of the 2025-2026 OHL schedule.

So despite dropping their fourth consecutive game on Sunday afternoon to the Eastern Conference leading Ottawa 67's, the fact that the team that has averaged just a smidge over three goals a game would net four in a 6-4 loss was, at the least, an encouraging sign.

A pair of goals from newly-acquired 17 year-old forward Jean-Cristoph Lemieux and a tally each from Vladimir Provorov and Chase Coughlan had the local juniors leading the 67's 4-3 with just over three minutes remaining in the middle stanza.

The experience of the visitors, however, would ultimately come to the forefront as Jasper Kuhta, with his second of the game, and Spencer Bowes gave Ottawa the advantage, heading to the third, while Kaleb Dietsch adding some insurance with his first goal of the year at 4:20 (3rd period).

Filip Ekberg and Frank Marrelli rounded out the scoring for the winners, who outshot Sudbury 36-25 as starting netminder Paolo Frasca fell ill during the second period intermission, giving way to Bjorn Bronas in the final stanza.

It's an interesting week ahead for the Wolves who travel east to face the North Bay Battalion on Thursday and return home for a pair of weekend games, hosting the Flint Firebirds on Friday and opening a home and home set with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QJMHL on Sunday afternoon.