Oct 31, 2012- 3:15 PM
Friday night in Timmins, the Wolves overcame a 4-1 deficit entering the third period, edging the Majors 5-4 thanks to an overtime marker courtesy of Charlie Venedam less than a minute into the fourth period of play.
Rookie Owen Fransen paced the Sudbury attack with a two-goal effort, with singles from Jeff Delange and Daniel Eddy, while Brandon Major Renaud answered with a hat trick for Timmins, with Colin Beach rounding out the offence for the home team with a second-period power play marker.
The tables were turned somewhat in game two as Joshua DeJulio recorded the game-winning tally, also in the opening minute of overtime, lifting the Kapuskasing Flyers past Sudbury 4-3.
Brenden Locke, with a pair, and Sheehan Moore also managed to beat goaltender Andrew Lefebvre, with D.J. Hancock, Michael Laidley and Jackson Gunner replying for the Nickel Capital Wolves.
Nothing was left to chance in the weekend finale as Sudbury scored six times in the first period, thumping the Kirkland Lake Legion 87's 11-3.
The offensive parade was led by Laidley, with a hat trick, with Steven Green, Niibin Nashkawa and Eric Paquette adding two goals apiece.
Fransen and Brandon Langella capped off the festivities for the Wolves, with Grayson Vigneaux (two goals) and Dalton Bruce providing the hometown fans a little something to cheer about.
Sudbury currently trails the league-leading Soo North Stars by two points, with the Sooites holding one game in hand. Little surprise that the Stars are also showing the way in the league scoring race, holding down the top five spots, led by veterans Ryan Vendramin (46 pts) and Anthony Stefano (41).
Locked in a very interesting race for home ice advantage in round one of the playoffs, the Nickel City Sons picked up two big wins on the road, working their way back to the .500 mark at 6-6.
Nickel City kicked off their weekend with a tough 5-3 loss at the hands of the New Liskeard Cubs. Mike Herd snapped a 3-3 tie with 52 seconds to play, with Kyle Patterson adding an empty-net insurance marker as the Cubs continue to chase both Timmins and the Sons.
David Elford, Jacob Leveille and Erik Laplante also scored for the winners, while Malcolm Bilton, Brodey Bilton-MacLeod and Nathan Shane kept things close for the Nickel City crew.
A three-goal spurt in a span of 1:46 in the third period made all the difference on Saturday as the Sons upended Kirkland Lake 5-2. Five different goal scorers found the mark for coach Joel Whissell as Ryan Punkari, Kurtis Clouthier, Matthew Neault, Denver Ghent and Michael Michel made good on their chances.
Dalton Bruce and Connor Lamothe replied for the Legion 87's, currently stuck in the basement of the GNML standings with a record of 1-15.
For their part, the Sons evened their season mark on Sunday, doubling the Timmins Majors 4-2 with another third period surge.
Trailing 2-1 after 40 minutes of play, Nickel City received the boost they needed with goals from Clouthier, Ghent and Bilton, adding to the power play marker from Michel that put the visitors on the board.
Tyler Romain and Austin Landry countered with goals for the Majors, as the Timmins squad fell one point back of Nickel City in the race for 4th/5th, with both teams having played 12 games to date.
The Great North loop is relatively quiet this week, with only three games on the schedule as a trio of teams (Sudbury, Nickel City and Kirkland Lake) take part in the 33rd annual Big Nickel Tournament, being held in Sudbury this coming weekend.
