Shoot-Out Thriller at the Gardens
Dalibor Dvorsky and Zacharie Giroux scored in a six-round shootout to give the Sudbury Wolves a 5-4 victory Thursday night over the North Bay Battalion in the opener of the Ontario Hockey League teams’ home-and-home series.
Dvorsky and Kocha Delic each had one goal and one assist in regulation time, while David Goyette and Quentin Musty had the other goals for Sudbury, which moved its won-lost-extended record to 24-14-5 for 53 points atop the Central Division, one point behind the East Division’s Brantford Bulldogs, still first in the Eastern Conference after a 5-2 road win over the Niagara IceDogs.
Goaltender Jakub Vondras, who faced 34 shots through overtime, made a diving game-saving glove stop against Anthony Romani at 4:31 of extra time before 2,916 at Memorial Gardens.
Owen Van Steensel and Jacob Therrien scored two goals apiece for North Bay, second in the Central at 22-15-7 for 51 points. Goaltender Dom DiVincentiis provided 39 saves through overtime.
The teams meet again at the Sudbury Community Arena at 7:05 p.m. Friday. The game can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.
“We had our chances,” said coach Ryan Oulahen, whose Troops had a 4-1 edge in overtime shots. “I really liked a lot of the things we did. I thought we were very, very strong five-on-five tonight, and obviously that third period just wore on our legs a little bit being in the box so much.”
North Bay was assessed all four penalties in the third period.
Dvorsky, going first in the shootout, scored before DiVincentiis denied Musty, Matthew Mania, Evan Konyen and Goyette. Giroux then connected. Vondras foiled Romani and Andrew LeBlanc before Ty Nelson scored. Dalyn Wakely, Therrien and, to end it, Sandis Vilmanis came up empty.
Delic struck for his 15th goal of the season at 7:54 of the third period to precipitate overtime, assisted by Nolan Collins.
Musty collected his 22nd goal 59 seconds into the frame from the lip of the crease on assists by Collins and Dvorsky to tie it 3-3 before Therrien, with his 17th goal, gave the Troops their final lead at 4:46, just nine seconds after he emerged from the penalty box.
The Battalion, which trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes, erupted for three goals in a span of 3:35, the first two 21 seconds apart, in the second period, sparked by Van Steensel at 5:52 when he shoveled the rebound of a Wakely shot home on the backhand. Bronson Ride had the other assist, his first point since a Jan. 7 trade from Niagara.
Therrien then struck with a snapper from the left circle. Justin Ertel, along the boards, made a backhanded back pass to Therrien, with Wyatt Kennedy drawing the other assist.
Van Steensel connected for his 22nd goal at 9:27 off a two-on-one rush with Romani, whose assist moved him atop the OHL’s scoring race. Wakely had the second assist.
Sudbury jumped to its early lead when Dvorsky scored on the power play at 12:03 of the first period, unleashing a screened shot from the top of the right circle. Donovan McCoy and Konyen assisted on the Slovakian import’s 24th goal.
Goyette netted his team-leading 27th goal at 18:51, converting the big rebound off DiVincentiis’s left pad of a left-wing shot by Delic.
BATTALION BULLETS: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Night saw executive director Seth Compton of OUTLoud North Bay and Steve Deacon of Deacon Wealth Management, with son Will, take part in the ceremonial faceoff. A table in the concourse offered fans chances to win prizes, including a pair of adult season tickets for 2024-25 … In 44 games, Romani has 36 goals and 34 assists for 70 points, one more than the Kitchener Rangers’ Hunter Brzustewicz … The Battalion went 0-for-2 on the power play. Sudbury was 1-for-5 … Opening lines had Wakely centring left winger Van Steensel and right winger Romani, Liam Arnsby centring left winger Ertel and right winger Vilmanis and Brice Cooke pivoting left winger LeBlanc and right winger Therrien. Left winger Ihnat Pazii and right winger Lirim Amidovski had various linemates … Defence pairs featured Ride with Nelson, Tnias Mathurin with Jacob LeBlanc and Kennedy with Paul Christopoulos. Trevor McDowell also saw action … The Battalion scratched Brayden Turley, Nolan Laird, Stef Forgione and Ethan Procyszyn, who suffered an injury in the CHL-NHL Top Prospects Game on Wednesday night at Moncton …. Sudbury acquired Noah Van Vliet, Giroux and McCoy shortly before the Jan. 10 trade deadline while dealing away Owen Protz, Caden Taylor and Djibril Toure … Collins returned from a two-game suspension from an instigating minor, major and game misconduct in a 7-3 road win Jan. 18 over the Barrie Colts.
