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Colts could be tough for still-gelling Wolves

The Sudbury Wolves continue to whittle down the roster and work out kinks in the pre-season as they take on the Barrie Colts in a home-and-home exhibition series.
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The Sudbury Wolves must crash the net consistently Friday when the team hosts the Barrie Colts at Sudbury Arena at 7:30 p.m. Photo by Scott Haddow.

The Sudbury Wolves continue to whittle down the roster and work out kinks in the pre-season as they take on the Barrie Colts in a home-and-home exhibition series.

Sudbury is in Barrie on Thursday and returns to Sudbury Arena on Friday for a game at 7:30 p.m. Here is a look at both teams as of Tuesday press deadline.

Sudbury

The exhibition season started rough for the Wolves, as they dropped three straight games trying to find their legs. They lost back-to-back games against North Bay and then at home to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds last Friday by the score of 6-1.

It was an unflattering result for the Wolves as they iced a lineup featuring a lot of veterans, while the Soo dressed six 16-year-old players and one 15-year-old — making it a tough loss to swallow, especially for the veterans players.

Forward Jacob Harris summed up the game pretty nicely. He said the Wolves were “dominated.” The team finally found some offence the following night in the Lock City as they beat the Greyhounds 7-4.

“We need the team to play with consistency,” Sudbury president and GM Blaine Smith said. “Last Friday was a stinker, but on Saturday in the Soo, the team held them to 23 shots and won.

“Players stood up for one another. I think it shows they are starting to come together as a team. We hope the trend continues this week against Barrie.”

With two goals to his credit, overage forward Ray Huether continues to make a case that he should be sticking around for the year. He, along with forwards Brody Silk and Nathan Pancel and defenceman Jeff Corbett, are the four overage players the team has on the roster. One of them has to go.

All four players mean a lot to the team and the decision of who goes will no doubt be a hard one to take, for team brass and for the other players. Pancel scored in back-to-back games against the Greyhounds.

The Wolves assigned defenceman Khadyn Butterfly to the Sudbury Nickel Barons affiliate club. It brings down the number of defenders on the team to eight. Overall, the Wolves are carrying 25 players.

“We want Khadyn to work on his defensive play,” Smith said. “He has great offensive skill and can skate well. He (works on his defence) and he will be back with us.”

Sudbury will be without the services of star forward Nick Baptiste against Barrie. He has an upper body injury sustained in last Friday’s game against Sault Ste. Marie. Baptiste has left for the Buffalo Sabres training camp where he will be assessed by team doctors. Smith doesn’t expect to have Baptiste back until October.

Barrie

The Colts are 3-1 in exhibition play and have had no problem scoring goals, with 16 markers for in the four games. Barrie beat Owen Sound, back-to-back, by scores of 5-2 and 4-3.

The Colts then put away Erie 7-6 in shoot-out before dropping their first game of the pre-season — 3-1 — to Guelph. Veteran overage forward Joseph Blandisi has three goals in four games. Barrie sophomore Matthew Kreis has two.

One of the biggest pieces Barrie added in the off-season was signing American forward Roy Radke. He scored a goal in the second game against Owen Sound. Barrie is counting on Radke bringing some pop to the offence.

“Roy brings skill and size to the line-up, and as an organization we felt like he was ready to make our team in last year’s training camp … Roy has a physical side to him, and also combines good hockey sense with size and touch on the wing,” said Barrie GM Jason Ford in a news release.

Barrie’s overage trio appears to be set. The team has Blandisi, forward Garrett Hooey and defenceman Jonathan Laser as the only players born in 1994 on the 2014-15 roster.


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