New Wolves’ forward Jean-Christoph Lemieux has found a comfortable home since being traded from the Windsor Spitfires to the Sudbury Wolves, scoring two goals in Sunday afternoon’s game against the Ottawa 67’s.
The Sudbury Wolves made a strong showing at home against the OHL’s top team Jan. 11, despite falling 6-4 against the Ottawa 67’s and dropping to a record of 15 wins, 24 regulation losses and one overtime loss on the season.
Jaeden Nelson was the starting goaltender for the Ottawa 67’s while the Sudbury Wolves went with Paolo Frasca in net.
Not even half a minute into the game Ottawa’s Filip Ekberg scored an unassisted goal, his 15th of the season, with a quick shot past Frasca to give the 67’s an early 1-0 lead.
Vladimir Provorov scored his second goal of the season at the 2:32 mark of the first, grabbing a pass from Berehowsky on the right side of the net, assisted by Luca Blonda and Daniel Berehowsky, tying the game 1-1.
Just over seven minutes into the opening period, and with Teddy Spitznagel for Ottawa serving a minor penalty for Hooking, Lemieux scored his 12th goal of the season with a hard slap shot from the point, with the assists going to Artem Gonchar and Adam Nemec, giving the Sudbury Wolves a 2-1 lead after the first period.
Ottawa tied the game with Jasper Kuhta’s 19th goal of the season at the 6:59 mark of the second period with a slap shot from the high slot area in front of Frasca, assisted by Spencer Bowes and Nic Sima, tying the game 2-2.
The Wolves regained the lead just over eight minutes into the middle frame with Chase Coughlan’s 10th goal of the season, tipping in a shot from Provorov, assisted by Vladimir Provorov and Daniel Berehowsky, making the score 3-2 for Sudbury.
Ottawa once again tied up the game in this seesaw battle just over one minute later with Frank Marrelli’s fourth goal of the season putting the puck past a screened Wolves goaltender, with the assists going to Connor Bewick and Nic Sima, making the score 3-3.
With 3:31 remaining in the second period, Lemieux scored his second goal of the game on a breakaway, assisted by Chase Coughlan and Gavin Ewles, once again putting the Wolves in front by a 4-3 score.
Almost immediately after his goal, Lemieux took a minor Slashing penalty, allowing Kuhta to score his second goal of the game on the ensuing power play with a quick one timer shot, assisted by Thomas Vandenberg and Filip Ekberg, tying the game yet again 4-4.
Spencer Bowes put the puck in the net with a tip-in with 1:45 remaining in the period, for his 10th goal of the season.
Assists went to David Bedkowski and Kaleb Dietsch, giving the Ottawa 67’s a 5-4 lead and chasing Frasca out of the game in favour of netminder Bjorn Bronas heading into the third period.
Just 4:20 in the third, Kaleb Dietsch scored his first goal of the season with a long shot that made its way past Bronas, assisted by Cooper Foster and Thomas Vandenberg to hand the Sudbury Wolves the loss by a 6-4 score.
The Sudbury Wolves hit the road just up north to North Bay Jan. 15 to take on their Northern Ontario and Central Division rivals, the North Bay Battalion, with puck drop scheduled for 7 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].