A late mistake proves costly as Rangers down Wolves

The Sudbury Wolves battled hard against the Kitchener Rangers, but it was a mistake in the final two minutes that gave the Rangers the lead and the 4-2 win.

Sudbury was coming off a season opening weekend that saw them split games against Niagara and Mississauga, with an shootout win against the Steelheads last Sunday.

Sudbury Wolves head coach David Matsos felt they deserved better.

“It hurts to lose, and it hurts the way we lost, but I can handle coaching this group and enjoy coaching this bench if we bring that effort level,” he said. “More time than not we’re going to be in game and on the upside other than on the downside.

“I know in sports this happens, some days you don’t deserve to win a game but you get every bounce you need to win. We just needed a bounce in our favour.”

A problem for the Wolves in the first two games was taking penalties in the first period. They were taking four in the first period in each of their first two games, but this game was a different story as the pack only took one in the first.

However, that one penalty led to the first goal of the game, a seeing eye point shot from Rangers defencemen Dylan Di Perna.

The Rangers then went up by two after a goal by Ryan MacInnis, son of hall of fame defencemen Al MacInnis.

Even before that there was a subtle change to the Wolves that ended up playing a huge part in a comeback.

For the first time the Wolves started the game with a lineup up front of Dmitry Sokolov, David Levin and Pavel Jenys.

In the second period, on a five on three power play David Levin found the net for his second on the season to pull the Wolves within one.

2015 import draft pick Dmitry Sokolov picked up his first point as a member of the pack, with the lone assist on the goal.

Sokolov said after the game that it’s been tough adjusting, but he is close.

“It’s a different game here so you have to get used to it,” he said.

The new line didn’t stop there as Pavel Jenys, who was held pointless in his first two games since returning from Minnesota Wild training camp, evened up the game with assists going to Levin and Sokolov.

“That’s what these guys were brought in to do. They’re really high-end skilled guys, and I think it’s only going to get better as they settle into the league and get more comfortable,” said Matsos.

After the game Levin was more focused on the loss, rather than picking up his second OHL goal and his third point in three games.

“Every goal is the same, try to help your team, doesn’t matter which goal you score, you’re helping your teammates. I’m just trying to do my best to win the game, it didn’t work today but next game I hope will be better,” said Levin.

After being outshot 12 to 7 in the first period it was the Wolves outshooting the Rangers in period two, 14-10.

That continued into the third as the Wolves had a number of chances but couldn’t find the net.

Then, with two minutes left in the game, the Wolves turned it over which led to a breakaway.

Defencemen Conor Cummins made an effort to get back throwing his stick in a last gasp but Gustaf Franzen beat goalie Troy Timpano blocker side.

Matsos admitted the first period wasn’t their best, but a rebound allowed the Wolves to stay even with Kitchener right until the end.

“I thought for the last 40 minutes of the game we actually played with more jump, more determination, passion, the full works,” he said. “I thought the first period, we didn’t come out ready but we managed to keep the numbers down. To be fair we only gave up four grade A scoring chances in the first, so we managed to battle our way through an average period and I thought our second and third was outstanding. It was a really fun game for me to sit back and watch, I mean they turned it up, relentless creating their own scoring chances by hard work. It’s unfortunate, one mistake got us.”

While Matsos wouldn’t come out and call it their best period of the season he said he was extremely pleased with the complete effort his team gave in the second carrying into the third.

“It was a very clean period, and I thought the third apart from one mistake going forward was very clean as well. We spent almost nine minutes of the period in the offensive zone in the third period, and almost nine minutes in the second period as well,” he said.

After the first period it would have been a different story for last year’s team especially the one near the end of the year, but captain Danny Desrochers was happy with the way the team responded.

“We have a great group of guys here and we have a lot of potential to do damage later on,” said Desrochers.

The trio of Europeans and the rest of this Wolves team will have a quick turnaround with a 2 p.m. start on Sunday against the Sarnia Sting, their fourth straight home game to start the season.