Wolves get a wake-up call

The Sudbury Wolves took it on the chin Friday night at Sudbury Community Arena as the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds came in with a rookie-laden line-up and blasted the Wolves 6-1.
It may be the exhibition season and wins and losses don’t count in the standings, but the loss didn’t sit well with the veterans. It left them with their eyes wide open.
“Today was definitely a wake-up call for a lot of things,” forward Nathan Pancel said. “Systematically, we got to be a lot better. We have to compete more and we just have to come together as a team. We have a lot to work on.”
Losing by five goals on home ice doesn’t leave a lot of positives to build on.
“Right now, it is tough to find them,” Pancel said.
The Greyhounds came bursting out of the gates and had the Wolves on their heels from the opening face-off. The Soo’s Anthony Salinitri and Gabe Guertler scored in the first 3:58 of the first period to bust the game open. The Greyhounds out-shot Sudbury 21-14 in the opening frame, putting a lot of pressure on goalie Troy Timpano.
It never got easier for Sudbury. The second was just as bad. A rough start to the period put them in a bigger hole as Hayden Verbeek and Guertler scored goals for the Soo in the first 5:48 of the middle frame to bulge the lead to 4-0.
In the third, Sudbury showed some life when Pancel jammed in a goal from a scrum in front of the net to make it 4-1. The Soo snuffed out any comeback attempt quickly as they got goals from David Miller and Blake Speers to make the final 6-1.
The Greyhounds out-shot Sudbury 51-33 overall when the dust settled.
It left a sour taste in the mouth of the Wolves.
“They completely dominated us,” Sudbury forward Jacob Harris said. “Right from the start, they were winning all the little battles. At the end of the day, that is what it came down to. We have to win those battles to win games.”
A scary moment in the second period happened when Sudbury star forward Nick Baptiste crashed heavily into the boards while checking an opponent. He went off the ice in obvious pain and didn’t return. After the game, Baptiste had his right arm in a sling. There was little information after the game about how bad the injury was.
“Not yet,” said Sudbury head coach Paul Fixter about any status on Baptiste.
Sudbury hits the road Saturday to play the Greyhounds again in Sault Ste. Marie. It is expected the Greyhounds will dress more veterans and the challenge will be even harder for the Wolves.
Penalties, among other things, must be curbed. Sudbury took 10 penalties, including three in the offensive zone, against the Soo Friday night.
“It’s frustrating,” Fixter said. “You hate losing 6-1 and you hate putting up that performance in front of our fans. We deserved it. We just weren’t good enough. Penalties are killing us. There is no question.”
Fixter is getting a better idea of what kind of team he has this season and it is a team that will need a lot of work and polish.
“Do I like the way we have been playing (in exhibition season)? No,” he said. “There is no panic here yet. We have been playing everybody in roles they are not accustomed to and giving everybody a fair chance to show what they are capable of doing or not doing and we are seeing a lot of the latter at this point.”