Their berth in post-season play now secure, the Sudbury Wolves have three more regular season games remaining to build some momentum prior to their first round match-up with the Brantford Bulldogs*.

(mathematically speaking, the Bulldogs have not yet clinched first place overall in the Eastern Conference - but from a practical standpoint, that is pretty much a given

If their two most recent losses demonstrated anything to coach Scott Barney, it is how little margin for error the Wolves have when going toe to toe with the top teams in the conference.

Friday night at Sudbury Arena, Sudbury were locked in a scoreless draw with the Bulldogs, with the game nearing the halfway point.

Ten minutes later, Brantford was up 3-0 - thank you Luca Testa, Marek Vanacker and Charlie Paquette - and this game was pretty much done.

Sault Ste Marie native Nikolas Rossetto drilled home the only goal of period three and goaltender David Egorov completed his assignment perfectly, stopping all 26 pucks in faced as the Bulldogs blanked the Wolves 4-0.

Some 24 hours later, the local juniors were on the road, facing the Barrie Colts with the team, once again, in pretty good shape at the 30-minute mark.

Brad Gardiner opened the scoring for the homeside in the first but Sudbury replied on goals from Vladimir Provorov (7) and Jan Chovan (26).

Again, the latter stages of the middle stanza proved problematic for the team locked into 8th place in the conference (thanks to a Brampton Steelheads loss to the Ottawa 67's on Friday night).

Joe Salandra, Cole Beaudoin and William Schneid got pucks past Karson Chartier in a span of 3:24, giving Barrie a 4-2 lead which they would pad thanks to a nail in the coffin from Kashawn Aitcheson.

Making his first start since January 7th, Chartier likely closed out his OHL career with a very solid effort, registering 47 saves versus the Colts.

As for their goal of hitting the win column once or twice more before the playoffs, the schedule certainly leans in their favour as the Wolves battle the 9th-place Steelheads in a home and home set, beginning Tuesday in Brampton.

The teams return to Sudbury on Friday with the Wolves putting a bow on 2025-2026 (of the regular season variety) with a Sunday afternoon trek to the east, visiting the North Bay Battalion.