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Wolves deserve better in loss to Niagara

If there was anytime this season the Sudbury Wolves deserved at least a point, it was Saturday night in St. Catharines. The Wolves had the lead twice and when they did fall behind in the 3rd period, they fought back to tie it up.
If there was anytime this season the Sudbury Wolves deserved at least a point, it was Saturday night in St. Catharines.

The Wolves had the lead twice and when they did fall behind in the 3rd period, they fought back to tie it up.

But, on a powerplay in the final minute, the Wolves gave up a short-handed goal with nine seconds left and the Niagara IceDogs escaped with a 4-3 win.

Wolves interim head coach Dave Matsos says the boys played their hearts out.

"For 59:51 we played hard against a very good team, we played physical and we managed our turnovers better in the second and third periods, but it's one of those things that happen in this game," said Matsos.

"This one hurts though because we deserved at least a point for the way we played".

The Wolves opened the scoring in the first period when Danny Desrochers scored his 13th goal of the season, but Niagara tied at 1-1 before the end of the period.

Sudbury grabbed the lead again in the second as captain Brody Silk scored his 8th only to see the IceDogs tie it up again to send the game into the third 2-2.

Niagara grabbed their first lead of the game at 5:40 but the Wolves kept pressing and Connor Cummins scored his first goal of the season at 16:57 and it looked like the game was going to overtime.

However handed a powerplay with less than a minute to go, the Wolves gave up the puck and Mitchell Fitzmorris deflected home his first goal of the season for the win.

It was the 14th shorthanded goal the Wolves have given up this season.

Wolves defenceman Kyle Capobianco liked the way his teammates played.

"It came from the goalie out," Capobianco said.

"Troy Timpano played great and overall we battled hard."

Coach Matsos says his players effort was off the chart and Capobianco agreed.

"Guys are putting in the hours and working really hard and tonight shows we have a lot of character on this team. Down the stretch we are still battling for every inch every shift."

With the loss the Wolves record drops to 12-51-1-1 and on the road they are 3-26-1-1.

The Wolves played without forward Matt Schmalz who is out with an upper body injury and defenceman Jonathan Duchesne.

Defenceman Jeff Corbett left the game early in the third period with an injury and didn't return.

The Wolves have three games left in their season all on the road starting next Thursday night in Peterborough. It's then on to Belleville Saturday night before finishing the season in Ottawa Sunday afternoon.

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