A goal from Jacob Battaglia midway through period three snapped a 2-2 tie at the Sudbury Arena Thursday night, lifting the visiting Kingston Frontenacs to a four game sweep of the Sudbury Wolves in the Eastern Conference quarter-final affair.

This marked the third time in the last four playoff series in which the Wolves have been engaged that the team would be swept aside by their opponents, extending the current post-season losing skid to eight straight games.

In a contest that clearly featured greater intensity than a Sudbury 4-2 loss on Tuesday, the home side would take their one and only lead, with Nathan Villeneuve netting his third goal of the week, pushing the Wolves ahead, 1-0.

Ben Pickell got that one back when a wrist shot from the far wing beat Nate Krawchuk, glove side (1:30 - 2nd) before Cal Uens found the back of the net again for the visitors roughly six minutes later.

But a second strike from Villeneuve, far and away Sudbury's most effective player vs Kingston, set the stage for the twenty minute frame that marked the end of the Wolves 2024-2025 season.

And for as much as a playoff loss to a Kingston team that finished with nearly 20 more regular season points might only be considered a mild disappointment, the fact that this was a sweep and that two of the games were really no contest certainly was a tougher pill to swallow.

Though expectations to open the season were generally quite modest, a very good stretch of hockey that ran through the better part of almost two months, pre-Christmas, had local fans hoping that at the least, this edition of the Wolves had a chance to make things very interesting come playoff time this year.

Clearly, that did not happen - and with the team set to absorb a large number of key departures this off-season, the months between now and the start of 2025-2026 will be key if the local juniors are to even challenge for a playoff berth next winter.