The test for teams is usually how well they perform on the road, away from the comfortable surroundings of their home arena in front of their loyal fans.
This is the test the Sudbury Wolves faced on Sunday afternoon for the first time this season, as they hit the ice in St. Catharines to take on the Niagara IceDogs in the second game of the 2025-2026 Ontario Hockey League regular season.
The game didn’t produce the results that the boys from the Nickel City were looking for, as the Sudbury Wolves dropped a lopsided 5-1 game.
Karsen Chartier got the start between the pipes for the Sudbury Wolves, while Vladislav Yermolenko was the starting goaltender for the Niagara IceDogs.
With 4:49 left to play in the first period, Ryerson Edgar scored his first goal of the season, and the first of his OHL career, after Luca Blonda gave the puck away in front of Wolves’ goaltender Chartier, giving the IceDogs a 1-0 lead.
This was the only goal of the opening period, sending the teams into the dressing room for the first intermission with Niagara leading Sudbury by a score of 1-0.
At the 3:44 mark of the second period, with Brady Smith for the Wolves serving a four-minute double minor penalty for high sticking, IceDogs’ forward Sean Doherty scored on the power play, picking up the puck off of a scramble in front of net for his first goal of the season, assisted by Hayden Reid and Ryan Roobroeck, increasing the Dogs’ lead to 2-0.
Less than one minute later and still on the same power play, Niagara left-winger Cole Cooksey picked up the puck after a pass from behind the Wolves’ net and scored his first goal of the season, with the assists going to Sebastian Dell’Elce and Ryerson, giving Niagara a sizable 3-0 lead with one period remaining in the game.
Just six seconds into the third period, Ryerson Edgar scored his second goal of the season and of the game with a slap shot from the slot area right in front of Chartier to give the IceDogs’ a strong 4-0 lead.
With 9:49 left to play in the hockey game, Edgar completed his first career OHL Hat Trick by deking around the Wolves’ defensemen, this goal being unassisted, increasing Niagara’s lead even further to 5-0.
With just 1:36 remaining in the game and while on the power play, with Callum Cheynowski serving his own double minor penalty for high sticking, Chase Coughlan picked up a rebound from a Wolves’ teammate, scoring his second goal of the season for the Sudbury Wolves, making the score 5-1 for the Niagara IceDogs.
It wasn’t nearly enough in this game, as the Sudbury Wolves fell to zero wins, zero one regulation loss, one overtime loss, and zero shootout losses on the season.
The Sudbury Wolves will still be looking for their first win of the season on Thursday night, Sept. 25, as they take on the red hot Windsor Spitfires in Windsor, 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].