The Sudbury Wolves took to the ice at the Sudbury Arena for the first time since before Christmas looking to make the Kitchener Rangers the Pack’s fifth win in a row.
Despite a strong comeback attempt late in the game by the Rangers, the Wolves held on for that fifth victory in a row by a score of 4-3 to improve to 14-19-1 on the season.
Mason Hriczov was the starting goaltender for the Kitchener Rangers while Paolo Frasca got the start between the pipes at home for the Sudbury Wolves.
Just 1:42 into the game, Kitchener got on the scoreboard first, with Jack Pridham’s 21st goal of the season with a wrist shot from the high slot, assisted by Dylan Edwards and Christian Humphreys, giving the Rangers an early 1-0 lead.
Under three minutes later, Blake Clayton scored his fifth goal of the season after receiving a centering pass from Rowan Henderson, assisted by Rowan Henderson, who played in his 100th career Ontario Hockey League game on Friday night, tying the game 1-1.
At the 6:35 mark of the opening period, Liam Ladds for Sudbury scored his third goal of the season from the right of the Rangers goalie, with the lone assist going to Brayden Bennett, giving Sudbury a 2-1 lead.
With just under six minutes left to play in the period, Wolves forward Artem Gonchar scored his ninth goal of the season with a blistering slapshot, with Rowan Henderson and Blake Clayton picking up the assists, ending the first period with the Sudbury Wolves leading the Kitchener Rangers by a score of 3-1.
At the 2:44 mark of the second period, Kitchener’s Dylan Edwards scored his 18th goal of the season, picking up his own rebound after his initial shot was saved by Frasca, assisted by Jacob Xu and Carson Campbell. This proved to be the only goal of the second period, and the teams headed into the third period with Sudbury holding a 3-2 lead.
Just over five minutes into the third, Luca Blonda scored for Sudbury, his first goal of the season after receiving a backhand pass from Pharand, with the assists going to Alex Pharand and Vladimir Provorov, giving the Sudbury Wolves a 4-2 lead.
With just over two minutes left to play, the Rangers made it interesting with Jack Pridham’s second goal of the game after a Wolves giveaway, making the score 4-3 for Sudbury.
Despite a flurry of chances for Kitchener, the Sudbury Wolves held on for their fifth victory in a row by a score of 4-3.
The Sudbury Wolves end the 2025 portion of their season on tonight, Dec. 31 in Barrie, taking on the Colts with puck drop scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Super fan Robert McCarthy covers Sudbury Wolves and Sudbury Five games for Sudbury.com. Got a question for Robert? Email it to [email protected].