The Sudbury U18 AAA Wolves capture magic in a bottle, to a certain extent, in walking off as Great North U18 League champions last month in Timmins. Recreating that same alignment of the stars at the Central Region U18 AAA Championships in Kemptville is proving problematic.

Midway through the six team round robin event, the Sudbury side find themselves still searching for their first victory, with goal scoring, in general, posing the biggest challenge for coach Scott Rienguette and company.

An opening game 6-1 loss to the Upper Canada Cyclones on Monday was a sign of things to come as the Wolves dropped encounters on the ensuing two days to both the Vaughan Kings (5-3) and the Elgin Middlesex Chiefs (5-0).

A natural hat trick from Connor Bain, with all three goals coming in the second period of play, powered the Cyclones past the NOHA champs as Jay-Zeus Mbarushimana, Jayden Mercier and Case Hennessy rounded out the scoring for the winners.

Denver Mulligan netted the only Sudbury goal while Wesly Richer was tagged for the loss between the pipes.

In their best showing to date, the Wolves fought back from a 3-0 deficit, getting to within one at 4-3 with three minutes to play before Vaughan finally salted away their win with an empty-netter in the final minute of play.

Xander Strojny, Jameson Fabbro and Drake Taylor all found the back of the net in a third period span of a dozen minutes or so for Sudbury while the Kings received goals from five different players in racking up the win.

Two goal efforts by George Matsos and Tyran Lawson showed the way for Elgin Middlesex as netminder Dylan Durno earned the shutout.

The Wolves, meanwhile, continued to run with a rotation of goaltenders as Declan McNamara played gave two before giving way to Richer in game three.

Sudbury will close out play with battles against Ottawa Myers Automotive (Thursday - 12:30 p.m.) and the Markham Waxers (Friday - 3:45 p.m.).

Meanwhile, a few weeks ago, the Great North U18 AAA League doled out their hardware with the regular season champion North Bay U18 Trappers garnering their fair share of the accolades.

Forward Benjamin Brunton was named league MVP with coach Josh Dale recognized as Coach of the Year while Denver Mulligan broke through for the Sudbury U18 AAA Wolves, recipient of Most Gentlemanly Player honours.

Following are the remainder of the individual award winners, as well as the league all-stars:

Top Forward - Benjamin Brunton - North Bay U18 Trappers
Top Defenceman - Jacob Drobny - Timmins Majors
Top Goaltender - Logan Coates - North Bay U18 Trappers
Top Scorer - Benjamin Brunton - North Bay U18 Trappers
Top Defensive Forward - Maverick Hill - New Liskeard Cubs
Rookie of the Year - Adam Pszeniczny - Soo U16 Jr Greyhounds
Manager of the Year - Matt Rabideau - North Bay U18 Trappers
Trainer of the Year - Dave Losier - Kapuskasing Flyers

All-Star Team
Goaltender - Logan Coates - North Bay U18 Trappers
Defenceman - Jacob Drobny - Timmins Majors
Defenceman - Rowan Smith - Sudbury U18 Wolves
Forward - Benjamin Brunton - North Bay U18 Trappers
Forward - Edan Etheridge - Timmins Majors
Forward - Alessandro Parco - Soo U18 Jr Greyhounds