Having witnessed what the trio was capable of in the second half of the 2025-2026 campaign, Sudbury Wolves fans were understandably excited about the prospects for the top line of JC Lemieux, Jan Chovan and Adam Nemec returning for a near complete this year.
Reunited for the very first time on Friday as Nemec made his way back from the Ottawa Senators training camp, the talented troika took a little time to get going versus the Niagara Ice Dogs.
But when they did get going, look out.
Leading the way as the Wolves broke a 1-1 contest entering period three wide open with six unanswered goals in the final stanza, the Lemieux-Chovan-Nemec combined for 13 points, sweeping all three game star slots as Sudbury improved to 5-0-0-0 with a 7-1 win at home.
For two periods, the contest was as entertaining as a 1-1 contest could be, both teams showcasing both their speed and puck-movement abilities. The only Niagara goal of the night would come, ironically, on a bad giveaway from Jan Chovan as landed directly on the stick of Noah Read in the slot, who made no mistake in beating Sudbury goaltender Paolo Frasca in the one on one showdown.
That, however, was the only puck that would elude the red-hot Wolves puck-stopper who finished the evening with 30 saves and can boast eye-popping stats (1.20 GAA; .958 save %) five games into the current season.
The Wolves evened things up on the power play as a pin-point passing play involved Chovan then Nemec and finally Lemieux, who set up camp (as he did much of the night) to the left of Niagara goalie Vladislav Yermolenko.
Still, it was a stretch of 2:24 in the third when the Wolves potted no less than four goals, two on the power play, that ultimately decided this contest. Genc Ula (redirected puck waist eye stationed just outside the crease on PP), Nemec, Chovan and Norman Greene, with his second in as many games, sent the good-sized crowd into a frenzy.
JC Lemieux and Vladimir Provorov tacked on two more tallies with Sudbury on the man advantage in the final minute of play as the PIMs piled up on both sides, with five majors, eight misconducts and a pair of game misconducts (both the Ice Dogs Noah Read) filling the scoresheet by the end of the game.
With only one game on the slate this past week, the Wolves are only mildly busier in the next seven days, travelling east to face the North Bay Battalion on Thursday evening and returning home the next night to welcome the Peterborough Petes to town for the second time in a month.
