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Generals dominate over Wolves 7-2

The Sudbury Wolves needed to be their best Friday night against the No. 1 ranked team in the CHL, the Oshawa Generals. They were anything but and the result wasn’t a surprise. The Generals took the play to the Wolves and beat them 7-2.
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Sudbury Wolves forward Nathan Pancel watches the puck as his shot clangs off the goalpost against the Oshawa Generals. Photo by Scott Haddow
The Sudbury Wolves needed to be their best Friday night against the No. 1 ranked team in the CHL, the Oshawa Generals.

They were anything but and the result wasn’t a surprise. The Generals took the play to the Wolves and beat them 7-2. Oshawa had a 1-0 lead after one period and bulged it to 6-0 after two periods before skating away with the win. Oshawa also out-shot Sudbury 53-24 overall, and 16-6 in the first period and 22-9 in the second period.

It was ugly and there was no way to sugar coat the loss.

“It is simple,” Sudbury forward Danny Desrochers said. “We didn’t come to play hockey tonight, especially in the first and second periods. We needed to stick to our system and execute the game plan and we didn’t do it and we lost.”

Despite being out-shot and making some sloppy plays, the Wolves hung tough with the Generals for nearly 20 minutes before giving up the game’s first goal to Aidan Wallace at 17:31.

The second period was nothing short of a disaster as it fell a part at the seams for the Wolves. Mitchell Vande Sompel, Michael Turner, Sonny Hertzberg, Tobias Lindberg and Wallace all scored uncontested goals to give the Generals a bloated 6-0 lead after 40 minutes of play.

Sudbury showed some spark in the third period with a pair of goals to make things a bit more respectable, but it was too little and most certainly too late. Desrochers and Matt Schmalz scored for Sudbury. Stephen Desrocher scored the seventh and final goal for Oshawa.

Sloppy play was the main culprit in the demise of the Wolves against the Generals on this occasion.

“No silver lining for me,” Sudbury head coach Paul Fixter said. “They showed tonight why they are the No. 1 team in the country. They played the right way. We refused to chip pucks and turn it over. We must have had 55 turnovers. You turn the puck over against any team and it usually ends up in the back of the net. You turn the puck over against the best team in the country, for sure it will end up in the back of the net.”

The Generals started rookie goaltender Jeremy Brodeur, who had just four games experience coming into the game. Fixter wanted to see that goalie peppered with pucks.

“Young goalie in there and we should have tested him more and we didn’t,” Fixter said. “We had a game plan and it wasn’t executed. We didn’t get enough shots. We had a decent first. We weren’t bad, but we weren’t good. We were just OK.”

The loss left the Wolves bitter. Less than one week ago, they out-played and beat another top-ranked team in the country - Sault Ste. Marie - with inspired play and relentless hard work. That style of play was nowhere to be seen Friday night.

“It’s frustrating,” Sudbury veteran Jeff Corbett said. “We have to bring it every night.”
Even though he was tagged for seven goals against, Fixter wasn’t throwing his goalie, Troy Timpano, under the proverbial bus. Timpano was under siege from start-to-finish and made 46 saves in the loss.

“He was our best player tonight,” Fixter said. “Troy was not at fault tonight. Troy played hard. Troy didn’t have much help in front of him tonight.”

Early in the third period, the latest addition to the Wolves tried to give his team a boost. Forward Chad Heffernan dropped the gloves and went toe-to-toe with bruising Oshawa defender Josh Brown. Heffernan’s debut impressed the coaching staff.

“I though he competed hard,” Fixter said. “He took on a tough customer. He showed what he’s capable of doing. He’s going to be a good player for us.”

The Generals have been imposing their will on many teams this season. Head coach DJ Smith has no shortage of players willing to do anything it takes to win. The result have been a pile of wins and national recognition.

“We have a lot of under-the-radar players who have been with the team for two or three years and they play exactly the way we want them to play,” Smith said. “They are team-first guys and it is a big reason for our success. These guys are all-in every game. It’s big when you have 20 guys pulling in one direction.”

Sudbury is back in action Sunday afternoon when they host the Mississauga Steelheads. Game time is 2 p.m.

“We need to respond with a huge game,” Desrochers said.

Game notes

The three stars of the game were: Aidan Wallace (first), Michael Turner (second) and Tobias Lindberg (third).
Sudbury scratched Trenton Bourque, David Zeppieri and Brody Silk.
Oshawa scratched Stephen Seeger, Cole Cassels, Kenny Huether and Daniel Robertson.


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