The View from Section 2, January 1, 2026

Wolves Ring Out 2025 With Loss

By T Puck

Fresh off their win on Tuesday night, the Sudbury Wolves made a snowy journey to Barrie to take on the Barrie Colts.

A large crowd of 4,158 attended the action to watch their tuxedo clad Colts decked out for the occasion.

The Wolves were without captain Nathan Villeneuve with a lower-body injury and Daniel Berehowsky with an illness. Mason Walker and Greg Najda dressed for the Wolves.

The starting goaltenders in this contest were Bjorn Bronas for the Wolves and Ben Hrebik for the Colts.

The opening 20 minutes was scoreless. It was a fairly even session.

The Wolves outshot the Colts 12-11. The Wolves had five scoring chances and the Colts had three scoring chances.

It was a different Barrie team that came out for the second period. The Colts pressed the action, and Bronas did well to keep Sudbury in the contest.

The Colts opened the scoring at 6:20. A shot from the right wing by Nicholas Desiderio went wide of the goal. Eamon Edgar pounced on the rebound, and he fired the puck by Bronas. Cole Emmerton had the secondary assist on the goal.

Sudbury replied with a tying goal 80 seconds later. Artem Gonchar flipped the puck into the Colts zone. Justin Handsor had trouble handling the puck, and Alex Pharand pounced on the bobble. He fired a quick shot past Hrebik. Gavin Ewles recorded the second assist on the goal.

The Colts regained the lead at 16:50. Braden Bennett and Artem Gonchar both had difficulty handling the puck deep in the Wolves zone. They were stripped of the puck by Brad Gardiner, who relayed a cross-crease pass to Calvin Crombie, who had Bronas at his mercy, and he made no mistake. Ethan Armstrong had the second assist.

The Colts outshot the Wolves 18-6. The Colts had seven chances to score and the Wolves scored on their only scoring chance of the period.

It looked like the Wolves were feeling the effects of back-to-back games and lengthy game day travel.

The Colts took a two-goal lead at 8:32. Jaiden Newton made a pass to Ethan Armstrong in the slot. Armstrong found former Wolf Alex Assadourian in the left circle, and a wrist shot beat Bronas.

Barrie closed out the scarring at 11:28 while they were shorthanded. Carter Lowe moved the puck past Luca Blonda at the right point, setting the stage for an odd-man rush. Brad Gardiner finished the play, beating Bronas from short range.

The Colts skated off the ice with a decisive 4-1 victory, avenging an earlier defeat in the same location just before the Christmas break.

The Colts outshot the Wolves 13-9 in the third period. The Colts had six chances to score and the Wolves had four chances to score.

The Colts outshot the Wolves 42-27 in the contest.

Credits and critiques

Wednesday night was another case of the Sudbury Wolves being satisfied with the split of two games, and not working hard enough to get a result in back-to-back contests.

The Sudbury offence was anemic. Colts goaltender Ben Hrebik could have tended goal in a lawn chair. Sudbury had only 10 chances to score in the entire contest. That is not nearly enough to win many games.

The offence does not even rate a scoring chance board. Alex Pharand had two chance to score and a goal. Rowan Henderson had four chances to score. Chase Coughlan had two chances to score. Blake Clayton had one chance to score. Kieron Walton had one chance to score. A popgun offense.

Bjorn Bronas played well for the Wolves, stopping 38 of 42 shots against him. He was under pressure the entire night. The defence had difficulty with the Colts forecheck, and they had difficulty moving the puck out of their own zone. You cannot allow your goaltender to face 42 shots and expect to win games

.

T Puck has heard rumours that Kieron Walton's family just bought a bakery. How do we know that? Because Walton has been loafing since he returned from the Christmas break. His parents tell him that he is a big star, and it goes to his head. He does not need to hustle, he does not need to play defence, he barely broke a sweat on Wednesday night. The lack of effort is totally unacceptable. Let us hope for Walton's sake that scouts for the Winnipeg Jets were not at the game on Wednesday night, because Mr. Walton would not have received a favourable scouting report.

For those fans who want to see the 2026-2027 Wolves, you saw them on Wednesday night. With their captain injured, and their other marquee player being a no-show, the result was both predictable and ugly.

T Park is sick of hearing excuses. The travel was hard. We played in a difficult environment. We played the night before. Welcome to professional hockey.

Gentlemen, do you want the definition of a real job? For many of us, it is doing a lot of the same things five days a week, 48 to 50 weeks a year. Perhaps management would do the fans a huge favour by sending some of the many underachievers on this roster out of their privileged, bubble environment, and into the real world where you have to sometimes fight to survive.

Let T Puck make it perfectly clear. There are few, if any, untouchable players on the Wolves roster. T Puck would have no hesitation trading players from this roster, including Nathan Villeneuve and Kieron Walton, in the right deal that makes sense for the team.

The Wolves return to action Friday night at the Elgin Street barn, as they hosted the North Bay Battalion in the opening game of key back-to-back divisional games.

Look for coach Scott Barney to start Paolo Frasca in goal Friday night.