The Sudbury Wolves ran into a brick wall in Saginaw Sept. 27 in the form of Spirit goaltender Jake Paterson, who shut the door on the Wolves and spirited his team to a 5-0 victory.

The Wolves played a solid road game during the first two periods despite trailing 2-0, according to a news release. The Wolves outshot the Spirit 27-20 after two periods and enjoyed numerous quality scoring chances.

Paterson made a number of great saves in the first two periods of the contest including committing absolute robbery on Wolves' forward Jake Harris, who found himself with a loose puck at the top of the crease and a wide-open net only to be stifled by the Mississauga native.

Things began to unravel for the Wolves early in the third period as the Spirit scored two power-play goals to take a commanding 4-0 lead before the five-minute mark of the period.

Wolves' assistant coach David Bell got his first taste as an OHL head coach after Wolves' head coach Trent Cull was assessed a bench minor and game misconduct penalty for disputing a referee's call in the third period.

The Wolves spent most of the period in the penalty box. Wolves' forward Brody Silk and defenceman Mackenzie Braid were both expelled from the game after getting into fights with Spirit opponents.

The Spirit took advantage of the many man-power advantages awarded to them in the third period and outshot the Wolves 11-3 in the final frame.

The contest ended with Saginaw scoring three goals on nine power-play advantages while the Wolves were zero-for-three on the power play. Shots overall were 31-30 in favour of Saginaw.

The Wolves will lick their wounds and rest up today before visiting the pre-season favourites — the Plymouth Whalers on Sept. 29 in Plymouth.

The Wolves wrap up the three-game road swing on Sept. 30 with a visit to Windsor to take-on former Wolf Derek Schoenmakers and the Spitfires.