Wolves fail to take down Steelheads

At the conclusion of the Sudbury Wolves versus the Mississauga Steelheads game at Sudbury Community Arena, the main men’s washroom by the team’s dressing room was out-of-service. A rank and powerful odour hung over the atmosphere. The Wolves lost 5-1 to the Steelheads and head coach Paul Fixter found the smelly situation fitting.

“We stunk the place out, literally and figuratively,” Fixter said.

It was another game to forget for the Wolves as another bad period of hockey sunk the team and cost them a chance at a point or two. The Steelheads rolled in and steamrolled the Wolves in the first period and scored four unanswered goals en-route to the victory. Mississauga scored early and fast to put the Wolves in a hole they wouldn’t get out of. Sudbury had an early power play, but that is where it all started to go wrong.

Mississauga’s Josh Burnside scored on a short-handed break-away at 3:17. By the 14:10 mark of the first frame, Burnside, with his second of the game, Jimmy Lodge (on the power play) and Sam Babintsev had all found the back of the net to give the Steelheads the 4-0 lead.

“The start of the game was horrendous,” Fixter said. “Really the game was over after the first. The next two periods were inconsequential because the game was out-of-reach. The bad period was the first period and we can’t start like that. Everything was bad.”

Sudbury settled down or the second and third periods, but couldn’t do any damage. Sudbury starting goalie Troy Timpano was taken out after one period and replaced by Sam Tanguay. Mississauga built their lead to 5-0 when Brandon Devlin scored on the power play at 6:18 of the second period. Sudbury did out-shot Mississauga 14-6 in the frame but couldn’t solve Steelheads net minder Spencer Martin. In the third period, Sudbury spoiled the shut-out bid by Martin when rookie Brady Pataki tipped in a shot to make it 5-1 at 14:12. That was it for the Wolves.

“Obviously we had a bad start and it cost us the game,” Sudbury forward Jacob Harris said. “We were slow and sloppy. That’s not good enough for this league. I thought throughout the rest of the game we did pick it up and play better, but it wasn’t enough to overcome that bad start. It is frustrating. Those bad periods or 10 minutes we take off are hurting us. We have to play 60 minutes.”

Fixter made a point of playing his fourth line a lot. The line of Pataki, Jonathon Masters and Brody Milne played the most minutes. It was deserved and also done by design.

“They earned it,” Fixter said. “They actually played hard. The message there is they sacrifice ice time sometimes in other games because other guys play more minutes. The other guys got to watch what hard work does. Isn’t it ironic that’s the line that ended up scoring the goal. There’s no secret to success - hard work, smart work and that line brought it.”

The fourth line appreciated the extra ice time and tried to take advantage of it.

“I think we played hard today and we tried our best,” Pataki said. “We still have to get better.”
Fixter was expecting more out his players against Mississauga.

“Mississauga played hard and the right way,” he said. “We didn’t match that. What is really frustrating in that is we had a good meeting yesterday. We had a very good ice session. Coming off a poor performance Friday, you would think you would have a little determination to show you have pride. People pay good money to come to these games and to sit and have to watch that is unacceptable. I sometimes say there are young players and cut them some slack. Not on nights like tonight. I heard the boos. I understand. It’s not right. Everybody is accountable, myself included.”

The Wolves are back on the ice Friday when the team hosts Windsor at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday when they host Kingston at 7 p.m.

Game notes
The three stars of the game were: Josh Burnside (first), Spencer Martin (second) and Jonathon Masters (third).
Sudbury scratched: Austin Clapham, Brody Silk and David Zeppieri.
Mississauga scratched: Austin Gerhart, Nick Zottl, Jason Smith, Noah Robinson and Adam Donnelly.