BY SCOTT HADDOW
Sudbury Wolves head coach and GM Mike Foligno
hopes their opponent tonight, Toronto, gives them a challenge
to respond to.
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Despite ringing up a pile of
penalty minutes, Wolves head coach and GM isn't
concerned about the style of play out of Benoit
Pouliot. |
Game time at the Sudbury Arena is 7:30 pm.
Sudbury played last night in Barrie, falling 4-1 to the Colts.
Read game wrap-up
Foligno was impressed with the way his troops
played last weekend in big wins over Peterborough and
Oshawa.
"The key for us is to play the same way we
played against Peterborough and Oshawa," said the bench boss.
"They played us really hard like warriors and our guys had to
respond...Physically, scoring important goals and defending
well. Against Toronto, it's a game were we have to work
them in their defensive zone and be sharp around the net and
down low. Possession down low will be important."
The Wolves got a big wave of momentum with
the return of scrappy Devin DiDiomete and sniper Matt Dias.
DiDiomete, who missed six games, had the most impact, scoring
two goals and dropping the mitts for a tilt to spark the team n
the wins.
"Devin can play any style of game...He really
benefited from the extra work he did to get stronger while he
was off injured," said Foligno. "He's still a physical
presence and has done a great job for us since he came back.
We're still waiting for Matt to get back his game, which is
about finishing. It takes a while to get it back
sometimes."
The Wolves will close out their regular
season home schedule this weekend with the Toronto game and a
contest against Mississauga on Sunday.
"We still want to improve as a club each time
we're on the ice," said Foligno. "We have to be stingy
defensively, execute our power play well and play a team
game."
The Wolves top scorers, Nick Foligno and Ben
Pouliot, both have bloated penalty totals, but Foligno
isn't too concerned.
"That's the kind of game they play," said
the GM. "Ben's one of the best hitters in the league and
you can't take that away from him. You can take away the
bad penalties from them both. We keep them mindful of the
penalties. I thought they did a great job at it last weekend.
They know come playoff time, it's a different ball game and
they'll be on top of it when the times comes."
Before Thursday's game, Foligno had 134
penalty minutes and Pouliot had 124.
The Wolves organization will honour
defenceman Ryan Hastings before the game for his five years of
service with the team.
"It's the right thing to do...Ryan has
always played hard for the Wolves and he takes a lot of pride
in being a Wolves player."
Rugged forward Justin Allen isn't
expected to be in the line up as he is still recovering from a
knee injury.