The U15 Northern Ontario AAA Hockey League playoffs are just a couple of weeks away and having not taken a win against the Soo Jr Greyhounds to date this year, Sudbury Wolves' forward Padraig Courtney and his mates were plenty motivated to send a bit of a message as the teams squared off in a three game weekend set in the Nickel City.

Picking up his fifth assist of the game, Courtney fed defenceman Van Sakellaris on an odd man rush with less than two minutes to play in game one, lifting the Wolves to a 6-5 win. Sudbury followed that up by taking the Hounds to overtime later on Saturday, losing 3-2, and falling 8-6 in a wide open affair on Sunday.

“It’s nice to get a big win against them at home,” said Courtney, moments after the buzzer had sounded. “That was huge, just to set the tone and show them that we could play with them.”

That said, the U15 Jr Greyhounds record of 27-2-1 is an impressive one, with the team heading into the playoffs as the prohibitive league favourites. “We really have to watch the odd man rushes because they like coming in with a three on two and driving the middle lane, getting some nice chances.”

“They forecheck hard, they backcheck hard; they’re a great team,” Courtney added.

As for his playmaking ability, it seems that the undersized forward has picked up a thing or two watching hockey at higher levels of play – at least based on his description of the game-winning goal. “The puck came out to the slot in our zone and I did a little shoulder check and saw that we had a three on one,” he said.

“I delayed a little bit and saw Van coming in hard. I just found a lane and put it on his tape.”

The game-winning snipe was the second goal of the game for Sakellaris, joined on the scoresheet by teammates Linden Bertoli, Jonathan Croome, Cameron Swartz and Vince Tarini while Gavyn Nevers (2), Haydon Eby, Matti Lappalainen and Jaspar Jarratt replied in a losing cause.

Later on Saturday, it was the visitors providing the heroics as Jayden Fisher-Ruck scored in overtime, vaulting the Greyhounds to a 3-2 win over the U15 AAA Wolves.

Lukas Maninos took care of the remaining scoring for Sault Ste Marie thanks to a two-goal effort while Cameron Swartz and Padraig Courtney handled the offense for the homeside.

Offense was bountiful Sunday morning in the series finale as Haydon Eby and Jaspar Jarrett hit the mark twice each in an 8-6 Sault Ste Marie victory.

Matti Lappalainen, Lukas Maninos, Hayden Brason-Doan and Gregory Beckeron also found the back of the net for the Hounds while a Jonathan Croome hat-trick kept things close for Sudbury.

Rounding out the scoring for the Wolves were Connor Wainio, Andre Beaudry and Maximus Falcioni.

Still in Sudbury and the NOHL, the U12 AAA Wolves completed a three game sweep of the Soo Jr Greyhounds, outscoring the visitors 6-2, 3-1 and 10-6 and improving their league record to 16-4-0.