Wolves continue losing record

The Sudbury Wolves were 20 minutes away from getting their first victory in 2015.

Leading 2-1 going into the third period Friday night against the visiting Mississauga Steelheads, the Wolves couldn’t hang on and allowed the Steelheads to score two goals in the final period and take away the win.

It marked Sudbury’s 16th loss in as many games. The losing streak, which sets a new record with each loss, didn’t have the players mincing words afterwards.

“Obviously, it sucks,” captain Brody Silk said. “We have to have the whole team going or it’s never going to end. We need everyone buying in and tonight, that was the difference. We didn’t have enough guys buying in.”

Through the first half of the game, the Wolves looked like they would snap the losing streak. Sudbury scored the first goal of the game when Pavel Jenys snapped a shot in from a tough angle in the first period to give the Wolves a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes of play. Sudbury continued to press the Steelheads in the second period and took a 2-0 lead thanks to a power play tally by Jake Harris after he charged to the net and collected his own rebound before scoring.

Then, as if a light switch turned off, the Wolves lapsed into bad habits and discipline trouble, and it cost them the game.

Before the middle frame was up, Mississauga got back into the game when Sean Day scored a power play goal to trim the Wolves lead to 2-1. It was the beginning of the end for the Wolves.

“When we got the lead, we were playing our game and sticking to our system,” Harris said. “Throughout the game, we just started getting away from it and that’s where we started to fall apart.”

Sudbury did themselves no favours in the third period and allowed Mississauga to take over. The back-breaker came just 13 seconds into the third period when Mississauga’s Bryson Cianfrone popped a goal just seconds after the Wolves killed off a penalty. It tied the game at 2-2 and swung all the momentum in favour of the Steelheads, and they rode it to the end.

Nathan Bastian sealed the Wolves fate on the night with the game-winning goal, sneaking the puck past Sudbury goalie Troy Timpano from in front of the net.

Interim head coach Dave Matsos saw the game change in the second period with a bad penalty, and then it degenerated in the third period resulting in the loss.

“I think everything changed by taking a foolish penalty,” Matsos said. “We’re so fragile you can’t do selfish acts like that … and that started it and then in the third period, we went to playing more as individuals. We were giving pucks away.”
Matsos saw too many passengers on the team. It caught him by surprise.

“To be frank, there was a lot of people who didn’t show up for what could have been a really good game tonight,” he said. “We’re not gifted around the net. We have to have everybody working for it. It’s a frustrating case. I didn’t see that coming. I really didn’t.”

With the losses mounting at an alarming rate, the players are trying to keep their heads up. It gets harder with each loss.

“We try and stay as positive as possible,” Harris said. “This losing streak is starting to weigh on us. It’s not easy being part of a team that’s on a streak like this. Definitely disappointed in the streak.”

The Steelheads have yet to meet the expectations of head coach James Boyd, but he sees the team slowly turning things around and believes they can make a run to earn a good playoff spot. The team has dealt with the loss of No. 1 goalie Spencer Martin, who injured his knee in December and is out for the rest of the season.

“I think we are a better team than our record shows,” Mississauga head coach James Boyd said. “We went in a funk in December and early January. We’ve been playing better lately, but we haven’t been getting the results. We just have to stick with it and the wins will come.”

The Wolves will try and avoid losing Saturday night when they hit the road to play the Owen Sound Attack. Sudbury last one on Dec. 13, 2014 when they beat Kingston 3-1. If Sudbury loses Saturday, it will mark the second time this season the Wolves failed to pick up at least one win in a month. The Wolves lost all their games in the month of October, going 0-11. So far in January, Sudbury is 0-13.

Game notes

The three stars of the game were: Sean Day (first), Pavel Jenys (second) and Jake Harris (third).
Sudbury scratched Austin Clapham and Brady Pataki (suspension).
Mississauga scratched Spencer Martin, Leif Hertz, Justin Bean, Austin Gerhart and Adam Donnelly.