A big win for the Sudbury Wolves on Jan. 16 as they took on the top team in the OHL’s Western Conference, the Flint Firebirds. Securing a 7-2 victory it was all about the offense for the Wolves as they improved their record to 16 wins, 25 regulation losses and one overtime loss.
Mason Vaccari was the starting goaltender for the Flint Firebirds while Bjorn Bronas once again got the start between the pipes for the Sudbury Wolves.
Alex Koston for the Firebirds found himself in the penalty box for Kneeing at the 8:12 mark of the first period, resulting in a power play goal for the Wolves, scored by Jan Chovan, his ninth goal of the season, assisted by Artem Gonchar and Jean-Christoph Lemieux, giving the Wolves a 1-0 lead.
Barely a minute later, Parker Smith scored his first goal of the season, assisted by Rowan Henderson, increasing Sudbury’s lead to 2-0.
Gonchar helped the Wolves increase their lead even further, scoring his 10th goal of the season 13:29 into the first period, with the assists going to Blake Clayton and Ethan Dean, making the score 3-0 for Sudbury.
The Wolves kept coming, when Lemieux scored his 14th goal of the season with under three minutes remaining in the first, assisted by Genc Ula and Vladimir Provorov, making the score 4-0 for the Sudbury Wolves after a very first period of play.
At the 3:46 mark of the second, Ula, the newest member of the Sudbury Wolves, scored his third goal of the season, assisted by Rowan Henderson and Brady Smith, the Wolves now firmly in control with a 5-0 lead.
Just over seven minutes into the middle frame, Flint finally found the scoreboard with Jimmy Lombardi’s 24th goal of the season, assisted by Urban Podrekar, making the score 5-1 for the Wolves.
Just over two minutes later, Flint struck again with Jacob Battaglia’s 17th goal of the season, assisted by Rylan Fellinger and Kevin He, putting a slight dent in the Wolves’ lead, making the score 5-2 for Sudbury.
With 4:52 left in the second, and with two Firebirds serving penalties, Adam Nemec scored his second goal of the season, and his second goal of his Ontario Hockey League career, making the score 6-2 for the Sudbury Wolves with one period remaining in the game.
Jan Chovan scored his 10th goal of the season just over eight and a half minutes into the third, assisted by Lemieux and Nemec, sealing an impressive 7-2 victory for the Sudbury Wolves over the Flint Firebirds.
The Sudbury Wolves’ next game is on Sunday, January 18, a special interleague game against the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) The puck drops in Sudbury at 2:05 p.m.