Wolves comeback not enough to beat IceDogs

It looked like another blow-out loss for the Sudbury Wolves against the Niagara IceDogs Friday night at Sudbury Community Arena.

With just 42 seconds gone in the second period, the IceDogs were celebrating another goal and enjoying a 5-1 lead. The Wolves have taken some hard beatings this season and the game was shaping up to be another one of those bad outings. It didn’t happen. Instead of digging the hole deeper and allowing more goals against, the Wolves fought back.

The Wolves scored two goals in the second period by Kyle Capobianco and Pavel Jenys, on the power play, to trim Niagara’s lead to 5-3 going into the second period intermission. The Wolves pressed the pace in the third period and it eventually paid off when Chad Heffernen scored at 18:44 to make it 5-4. Sudbury pulled goalie Sam Tanguay for an extra attacker, but the Wolves fell short of tying the game and lost 5-4.

Sudbury Wolves interim head coach Dave Matsos was encouraged by the game the Wolves played, despite the loss.

“I don’t think we had quit in our game,” Matsos said. “We started reeling them in and putting them on their heels. For me, it’s real step forward for our club. We kind of got into a groove and played the game with them kind of sitting on their heels, especially in the second. At this point, you take away the positives.”

The Wolves have had way too many games this season where they have lost by four, five, six or more goals. Those types of losses can wear down a team’s character and players. Not the Wolves. Forward Matt Schmalz doesn’t see it happening to the Wolves. He sees a group of players ready and willing to fight to the end of games to earn respect.

“I thought we battled back,” Schmalz said, who picked up three assists in the game. “It’s what we want to keep our dignity as and keep our identity as a team that never gives up. We battled, but came up short.”

The Wolves know they are not going to beat teams with offensive prowess. They know they have to fight for every inch of ice in every game to stand a chance of getting wins. Schmalz has no doubts the boys will do it.

“It’s going to be one of the hardest things to do all season, honestly,” he said. “We have to stay positive.”

Sudbury got off to a good start when rookie Brady Pataki opened the scoring and gave the Wolves a 1-0 lead at 11:35 of the first period. What followed over the course of the rest of the period, and 42 seconds into the second period, was five straight Niagara goals that blew the game wide open. Carter Verhaeghe, with two, Mikkel Aagaard, Christopher Paquette and Brendan Perlini scored for the IceDogs.

Niagara scored three goals in 1:15 in the first period to put Sudbury in a hole they couldn’t get out of. It was the team’s fourth straight loss since a coaching change last week. Matsos is seeing real progress, but it will be a process.

“It’s baby steps,” Matsos said. “We’re a team that can’t really take a mental break, a physical break. This is going to be done by committee. We’re a team that can’t really fall asleep because it’s hard for us to claw black. I really thought the character really shone through the last couple of games to be honest. Completely different mentality … we actually believed we were going to win. I think it’s going in the right direction for sure.”

The Wolves acquired two players at the trade deadline – forward Charlie Graaskamp and 16-year-old rookie defenceman Reagan O’Grady – and both made their debuts Friday.

“They were everything I was hoping they would be,” Matsos said. “Charlie adds a really nice skill set to our team. O’Grady … really was vocal on the bench in such a positive manner, it was nice to see.”

O’Grady had no problems fitting in immediately with the team despite not being able to practice with his new teammates before the game.

“They are a bunch of great guys,” he said. “They’re willing to go through the wall for each other. It’s all about rebuilding here and we’re going to have a good team down the road.”

The IceDogs were close to being put to sleep early in the season as they struggled mightily coming out of the gate despite a lot of hype around the team being a contender. It has taken a while, but Niagara head coach Marty Williamson has seen dramatic improvement since mid-December as the team has been winning a lot more than losing. With the victory over Sudbury, Niagara climbed into the eighth and final playoff spot over idle Peterborough, and bumped their record in their last 10 games to 7-2-0-1.

“We have shown some life the last few weeks,” Williamson said. “We had a disappointing start. We had a ton of injuries and moved into a new rink. There were a lot of distractions. Now, we are starting to show what team we really are. We just need to be more consistent throughout our line up and we will be a good hockey club.”

The Wolves are back in action Saturday as they hit the road to play the Barrie Colts. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Game notes

The three stars of the game were: Carter Verhaeghe (first), Kyle Capobianco (second) and Matt Schmalz (third).

Sudbury scratched Conor Cummins and Austin Clapham.

Niagara scratched Stephen Dhillon, Luke Mercer, Zach Wilkie and John Corneil.