With more than a month of OHL action behind them, the Sudbury Wolves continue to show the way in the Central Division, winning two of three this past weekend - ironically with both victories coming on the road.
That trend began on Thursday as the Wolves visited the North Bay Battalion, holding on for a 4-3 win in a back and forth affair. Jan Chovan (Wolves) and Rene Van Bommel (Battalion) traded first period goals, with Tanner Adams (Wolves) and Shamar Moses (Battalion) doing likewise less than two minutes apart early in the second.
The visitors from Sudbury leapt to a two goal cushion thanks to markers from Adam Nemec (10:19 - 2nd) and Kash Kwajah (9:01 - 3rd), giving them just enough cushion to sustain a late snipe from Evgeny Dubrovtsev, making things interesting at the end.
The next night in Sudbury, it was the Troops who always seemed to be a step ahead, jumping out to a 3-0 lead on route to a 5-3 win over Sudbury. Arseny Pronin and Cam Warren both solved Wolves' goalie Bjorn Bronas in the opening 10 minutes of play as the 2-0 scoreboard remained unchanged until early in period three.
With the homeside squandering more chances than they would care to remember and North Bay netminder Mike McIvor coming up with several big saves, the Battalion recorded a key insurance tally as
Sudbury got that one back twenty seconds later when Finn Kearns took advantage of a puck that was drilled off linesman Mathieu Lecavalier, burying the first of his OHL career.
From there, it was tit for tat as a pair of goals from Parker Vaughan were countered by Sudbury forwards Kash Kwajah and Parker Smith both lighting the lamp as the teams split their home and home series, each club winning on the road.
It was back to the tight-checking hockey that the Wolves have produced early in 2026-2027 on Sunday night as the lads from the north and the Oshawa Generals were deadlocked at 2-2 after 65 minutes of hockey, giving way to a shootout.
Goaltenders Paola Frasca (6 saves on 6 attempts) and Matthew Humphries (5 saves on 6 attempts) were near perfect, with Artem Gonchar the only one of the 12 shooters to convert on the penalty shot attempt with the win on the line.
Much earlier, Mark Pape broke the ice for Oshawa (4:05 - 1st), with Adam Nemec pulling Sudbury even (16:20 - 1st) and the second period bearing an eeringly similar look and feel. Tyler Hinde restored the Generals' advantage (10:58 - 2nd) and Kash Kwajah (19:52 - 2nd - on a penalty shot) made it three goals in as many games.
The 3-2 shootout win improved the Wolves record to 9-3-1-0 (19 points), four better than the Niagara Ice Dogs (7-5-1-0) with a pair of home games on the slate this week. On Friday, coach Scott Barney and company welcome the London Knights to town, with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies paying a visit on Sunday afternoon.
