Wolves lose close road game in Belleville

For the second straight night, the Sudbury Wolves put in a strong effort, but unlike Friday night they weren’t able to find the back of the net enough to win.

Saturday night in Belleville, the Wolves lost 2-1 to the Bulls dropping their early season record to 1-1. The Wolves opened the season with a 3-1 win over the Niagara Ice Dogs at the Sudbury Arena Friday night.

Matt Schmalz’s first goal of the season at 3:47 of the first period got the Wolves off to a fast start, but that was all the offence they could generate.

Despite the loss, head coach Paul Fixter says they could just as easily have left Belleville with a win.

“I liked the work ethic tonight” Fixter said. “We played hard, obviously we didn’t generate enough offence to win that hockey game, but defensively we were strong.”

“We got outshot in the third, but through two periods we out-chanced them. We had some glorious scoring chances, but we didn’t capitalize on them. We have to find a way to generate more offense 5 on 5. Right now it’s not good enough, but I guess as coaches that’s our job to figure it out.”

The loss spoiled the stellar OHL debut of Wolves goaltender Sam Tanguay. The 19-year old rookie stopped 36 of the 38 shots he faced including 15 of 16 in the third period.

Despite the loss, Tanguay was pleased overall.

“We worked hard” Tanguay said. “The guys made my job pretty easy. I was pretty calm and enjoyed the moment of my first O-H-L game. I had fun, but I was pretty tired at the end.”

“It was just a bad bounce on their second goal ... it hit the crossbar, then my helmet. I guess that’s hockey.”

At 12:32 of the third period Wolves forward Jacob Harris was handed a five minute match penalty and a game misconduct for slew-footing. That carries an automatic two game suspension, but the Wolves have asked the league to take a look at the incident. The league can rescind the suspension.

The Wolves conclude the weekend with a stop in Oshawa Sunday night to face the Generals. The game will feature a pre-game ceremony to retire the number 91 jersey worn by John Tavares.


Game Notes:

- The Bulls outshot the Wolves 38-32.

- Sudbury was 1-4 on the power-play while Belleville was 0-4.

- Along with Tanguay, Devon Paliani also made his O-H-L debut for the Wolves.

- The three stars: 1) BELV - 9 Brett Gustavsen 2) BELV - 31 Charlie Graham 3) SBY - 1 Samuel Tanguay