Wolves come up big on Superhero Night

There must have been a little extra power radiating from the Sudbury Wolves superhero jerseys because they flew past Saginaw 7-3.

The Sudbury Wolves wore new jerseys as part of Superhero Night.

During the game the jerseys were up for auction and the players gave them away after the game with proceeds going to the Northern Ontario Families of Children With Cancer.

And on that night the Wolves were able to pick up a win, their third straight, and for the first time on the season they scored more than six goals.

But as Wolves head coach David Matsos said after the game, this contest was a comic book script full of twists and turns.

“It’s about finding ways to win,” Matsos said. “Timps(Troy Timpano) bailed us out in the first third of the third period. He had to make some big saves on timely penalties, but it’s hockey. It’s a sport that’s filled with emotion and I think we touched all them tonight.”

In the Wolves current three-game win streak, Sudbury has scored 18 goals, a nice surprise for the team with the third lowest goals for total in the OHL.

“We’ve had trouble scoring all year, to get 18 in the last three games it’s nice to see these guys get rewarded,” said Matsos. “Good things happen when you filter pucks to the net, we keep saying that.”

Getting pucks to the net is what the Wolves did in the first period. Ryan Valentini scored 1:43 in with assists going to Mikkel Aagaard and Kyle Capobianco.

The villain Spirit responded just two minutes later on Saginaw’s first shot of the game, a goal by Mitchell Stephens.

Then Sudbury pushed the action in the Spirit zone.

Goalie Evan Cormier couldn’t corral the initial shot and Brady Pataki used his Black Panther like skills to pounce on the rebound for his fifth on the year.

“I loved our first period, I thought we were very aggressive, I thought our D did a good job keeping us on the offence running cycles,” Matsos said. “Defensively I thought we were strong, we didn’t give up a whole lot.”

The second period is when the flood gates opened.

Alan Lyszczarczyk used his Spidey senses to get himself in the right spot at the right time as a rebound came to his stick and he had a wide open net to shoot on, making no mistake for his 13th of the year.

Patrick Murphy sprung Mikkel Aagaard with a beautiful pass that had Hawkeye like accuracy and Aagaard walked in all alone beating Evan Cormier with the backhand.

Then Danny Desrochers used an optic blast from the slot to make the game 5-1 spelling the end of the night for Saginaw’s masked menace(goalie) Cormier.

Like any good villain Saginaw did not give up scoring two goals late in the second period to draw the game closer at 5-3.

“As junior hockey has it we ran into a little bit of turbulence in the second and played it into a tough 10 minutes in the third,” said Matsos.

“Everybody played their part I thought, everybody contributed in some way. The emotions were good on the bench, the right things were being said between the second and third, we found a way.”

The beginning of the third was key as Sudbury was forced to kill off a five-on-three power play. Overall on the night, Saginaw was 0/6 on the power play.

Sudbury added to their goal total as Reagan O’Grady flew through the Spirit zone half way through the third. His shot went through the left side of the net just inside the post.

Play continued and at the first stoppage they went upstairs and confirmed it was a goal, O’Grady’s first in the OHL.

“It feels great, at the end of the day we got two points and that’s what matters. The first ones out of the way, hopefully some more to come. It’s a team effort that we had tonight and I can’t thank the boys enough, they were all encouraging and happy so it’s a good feeling for sure,” said O’Grady.

O’Grady finished an impressive plus four with a goal and an assist.

Michael Pezzetta scored his sixth of the year to cap off the score at 7-3.

Eight different Wolves had a multipoint game and 13 players found the score sheet.

Timpano picked up his second straight win stopping 38 of 41 shots earning first star honours.

Next up is a game Saturday against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Sudbury Arena.