The Sudbury Wolves were back on the ice for their final game of the preseason on Sunday afternoon, taking on the Kingston Frontenacs in the neutral territory that is the Stouffville Arena in Stouffville.
Gavin Betts was the starting goaltender for the Kingston Frontenacs, while Finn Marshall got the start between the pipes for the Sudbury Wolves.
The Sudbury Wolves got off to the start they were looking for, when returning forward Rowan Henderson scored his second goal of the preseason, assisted by Chase Coughlan and Blake Clayton, just 46 seconds into the game, giving the Wolves an early 1-0 lead.
At the 6:39 mark of the opening period, the Frontenacs tied the game with Landon Wright’s first goal of the preseason, with the assists going to Tomas Pobezal and Matthew Henderson, making the score 1-1.
With 7:22 left to play in the first period and Lucas Moore of Kingston serving a two-minute minor for cross-checking, Ty Robar scored his first goal of the preseason, giving the Kingston Frontenacs a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.
Ten seconds into the second period and with Brady Smith serving a penalty for Sudbury, the Frontenacs scored an insurance goal on the power play thanks to Andrew Kuzma’s second goal of the preseason, (assists, Aleks Kulemin and and Matthew Frost) to make it 3-1 for Kingston.
Less than one minute later and still on the same power play, Nolan Snyder scored his first goal of the preseason, assisted by Riley Clark, to put Kingston firmly in the lead by a score of 4-1.
Moving onto the second period, just under five minutes in, Landon Wright scored his second goal of the game, and of the preseason, (assists, Camden McCuaig and Lukas Moore) to give the Frontenacs a 5-1 lead.
Just under 14 minutes into the period, Wolves’ Forward Kimani Eccleston scored his first goal of the preseason, assisted by Jayden Connors and Daniel Berehowsky, making the score 5-2 for Kingston after 40 minutes of play.
With 12:32 remaining in the third period, Vladimir Provorov continued his impressive preseason for the Sudbury Wolves with his third goal, assisted by Hudson Chitaroni and Jayden Connors, reducing Kingston’s lead to 5-3.
With 6:40 remaining in the game, Sudbury made things interesting with Blake Clayton scoring his second goal of the preseason, with the assists going to Rowan Henderson and Ethan Dean, cutting the Wolves’ deficit to 5-4.
With just over a minute and a half left in the contest, Kingston defender Lukas Moore scored on the empty net, his first goal of the preseason, on an empty net, to seal a 6-4 victory for the Kingston Frontenacs over the Sudbury Wolves.
The Sudbury Wolves begin their regular season this Friday, Sept. 19, against their Central Division and Northern Ontario rivals, the North Bay Battalion, with puck drop scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
Super fan Robert McCarthy covers the Sudbury Wolves and Sudbury Five for Sudbury.com. Got a question for Robert? Email it to [email protected].