The View from Section 2, January 3, 2026

Wolves Victorious in Front Half of Key Divisional Games

By T Puck

The Sudbury Wolves began a key home and home series with the North Bay Battalion on Friday night.

The game began an important three-game stretch before the OHL Trade Deadline which comes into effect for overage players Thursday at noon, and for all other players, on Friday at noon.

The Wolves welcomed back Daniel Berehowsky to the lineup. Nathan Villeneuve also returned to the lineup. Hudson Martin did not play on Friday night. Finn Kearns was called up from St. Andrew's College to be part of the Wolves defence.

The starting goaltenders in this game were Mike McIvor for the Battalion and Paolo Frasca for the Wolves.

Sudbury opened the scoring 2:40 into the contest. Blake Clayton won the face-off to the right of McIvor. The park was scrambled in the slot, and Daniel Berehowsky got a touch on the puck. The puck squirted free in the slot area, and Carter Kostuch was first to the loose puck. Kostuch fired a quick, low shot from the right circle past McIvor.

The Wolves extended their lead 14 minutes later. Nathan Villeneuve made a pass to Artem Gonchar. Gonchar moved through the right circle, and he found Alex Pharand in the slot, being loosely guarded by gargantuan Battalion defender, seven-foot Alexander Karmanov. Gonchar made a pinpoint pass to the open stick of the Sudbury overage are, and Pharand directed the puck past McIvor from the low slot.

North Bay peppered Paolo Frasca with 20 shots in the opening 20 minutes. Frasca had to be sharp on several occasions, stopping multiple consecutive scoring opportunities. Frasca propped up the Sudbury defence which looked vulnerable and shaky.

Sudbury took good advantage of the 11 shots on goal that they had in the opening stanza.

North Bay had 12 chances to score and the Wolf had eight chances to score.

The team split four goals in the second period.

North Bay found the scoresheet at 4:37 on the power play. Jonathan Kapageridis found Nick Wellenrieter with a pass in the right circle. He fired a quick wrist shot from just above the face-off dot by Frasca. Evgeny Dubrovtsev recorded the secondary assist on the goal.

Sudbury restored its two-goal lesd 8:19 while the teens were playing four-on-four. Nathan Villeneuve made a rush down the right wing, and it appeared that he was coming in on McIvor on a breakaway. At the last moment, Villeneuve spotted Kieron Walton coming late down the left wing. A well executed cross-crease pass found Walton with an empty net, and he made no mistake over a down and out McIvor.

North Bay responded with a goal of its own just 16 seconds later. Carter Kunopaski moved the puck to Evgeny Dubrovtsev behind the Sudbury net. He quickly moved the puck to Ryder Carey in the slot. His quick shot beat Frasca.

Sudbury regained its two-goal lead at 18:01. Artem Gonchar made a long pass to Alex Pharand in the right circle. Pharand moved the puck to Ethan Dean in the high slot. A quick wrist shot beat McIvor.

North Bay dominated the shot clock, outshooting the Wolf 13-4. North Bay had 10 chances to score and the Wolf had three chances to score.

After allowing 33 shots on goal over the opening 40 minutes of play, the Wolves played a more responsible defensive style of play in the third period. They limited the Battalion to only seven shots on goal. Goaltender Frasca made key interventions when he had to prevent a North Bay comeback.

The Wolves did not rest and try to protect their two-goal lead, they continued to play an assertive style of offensive hockey.

Sudbury maintained its two-goal advantage through most of the third period.

North Bay coach Ryan Oulahen removed McIvor in favour of an extra attacker with 2:16 to play.

Sudbury put the game away at 18:50. A short pass from Blake Clayton sent Rowan Henderson down the left wing. He used a good determination, moving the puck deep into the North Bay zone. He found Kieron Walton in front of the net, and Walton had his easiest goal of the season.

The Wolf delighted the crowd of 3,185 in attendance with one more goal for good measure at 19:35. A long shot from the right point by Brayden Bennett created a scramble in front of the North Bay net. Vladimir Provorov got a touch on the puck, and it moved behind McIvor. Ethan Dean alertly jumped on the loose puck, and he deposited his second goal of the contest into an empty net.

The Sudbury Wolves defeated the North Bay Battalion 6-2.

The Wolves had 10 shots on goal in the final stanza.

The Wolves had seven chances to score and the Battalion had six chances to score.

The Battalion outshot the Wolves 40-25 in the contest.

Credits and critiques

The final score in this game was not indicative of the closeness of this contest.

The Wolves were bailed out once again by goaltender Paolo Frasca, who had an excellent game, stopping 38 of 40 shots directed at him. North Bay had 26 scoring chances in this contest. This is not a recipe for success for Sudbury moving forward. The Battalion also had other good scoring opportunities, but there shooting accuracy left a lot to be desired. Frasca was named the first star of the contest.

Ethan Dean has quietly been one of the Wolf more effective players in the last few games, and it was nice to see him rewarded with a two-goal evening. T Puck has been hard on Dean, but there are a lot of things to like about his game. The reality of his situation is that Dean needs to continue to be productive offensively if he is going to maintain regular playing time. More efforts like this will certainly give the coaching staff opportunities to give him more ice time.

Carter Kostuch was named the third star of the contest. T Puck was pleased to see that Kostuch was rewarded for a good effort. He scored a goal, and when he was put on the ice in a late game defensive role, he sacrificed his body and made good defensive plays to preserve the Sudbury lead. Give the young man props. He showed his heart, and he showed that he could be a big contributor for Sudbury going forward.

T Puck needs to express a few things about how the situation with Kostuch has been handled by the team and the local media.

T Puck was furious when Wolves sycophant David Bowen told the television audience on Eastlink before the first game played by Carter Kostuch with the Wolves on December 30, 2025 that Kostuch was returning after a bit of an eye injury.

Bowen is clearly controlled by the team. The problem is that he went on a non-controlled media source, and he was exposed.

Kostuch was originally injured in December, 2024, in a game in Ottawa against the Ottawa 67's. The stick of an opposing player got under his visor, and went into his eye. Kostuch was originally sent to hospital in Ottawa, and he was eventually transferred to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. As someone who was at that esteemed Toronto Hospital far too often as a child, T Puck knows that it is a scary, but sometimes wonderful place.

Kostuch underwent at least four surgical procedures, before he was recently cleared to play.

Kostuch was out of hockey for 15 months, and T Puck is sure that on many occasions, Kostuch probably wondered whether his hockey career was at an end during his injury layoff.

T Puck owed his career and Carter Kostuch may owe his career in the OHL in large measure to the staff at the Hospital for Sick Children.

Ben Leeson of the Sudbury Star did a decent interview concerning the Kostuch comeback some weeks ago. As with many of Ben Leeson's interviews, it did have a sycophantic slant to it, but the interview did have credibility.

At the end of the Friday broadcast, Nick Liard characterized the Kostuch situation correctly, as a comeback from a serious eye injury.

Fast-forward to Friday night when Kostuch was interviewed post-game by Amanda Zurkowski of Eastlink.

Let it be known at the outset that T Puck is not a big fan of Zurkowski, because she is not savvied as an interviewer to not interject her personal feelings into interviews.

Carter Kostuch was put in a very awkward position by Amanda Zurkowski. You could clearly see that Kostuch answered the questions slowly and deliberately, but to his credit, he answered the questions that were posed to him honestly. He was clearly fighting his emotions while trying to give answers.

Team management and local media handled the situation concerning the return of Carter Kostuch in an odd fashion.

The perpetually paranoid and insecure upper management was unable to appreciate the significance of the situation.

The local media were all fearful of reporting the truth, for fear of offending someone.

Fortunately, there was one employee of the Wolves that understood the situation of Carter Kostuch and its significance. That was head coach Scott Barney.

In the post-game media availability on Friday, Kostuch and Barney went into detail that had not been previously reported by anyone.

Carter Kostuch as a normal playing weight of 170 pounds. During his recovery, he has lost 29 pounds.

Kostuch revealed to Ben Leeson, that due of the severity of his eye injury, he was unable to eat properly, and he was unable to sleep properly. Kostuch had to sleep at 90 degrees. He had to endure a daily regime where he had eyedrops put in his eye every two hours.

Scott Barney then went on to put things in the proper perspective. This was to be expected from a man who lived through the aftermath of the Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy when he stepped into a situation where players were killed, and returning players had to deal with physical injuries and mental trauma.

Barney spoke about Carter Kostuch, the person. He spoke about Carter Kostuch, the hockey player. Barney revealed Carter Kostuch has been unable to work out. He spoke about Carter Kostuch, fearlessly blocking shots while still trying to regain his strength and timing in his comeback. He pointed out that all of this was quite remarkable from a young man that almost lost his eye.

Carter Kostuch was quick to praise Wolves coach Scott Barney post-game. Barney suffered a serious back injury well playing for the Peterborough Petes, and he was sidelined for four years before beginning his professional hockey career. If there is anyone who could empathize with Carter Kostuch, it is Scott Barney. Scott Barney is a good human, and you know that Carter Kostuch will run through a wall for him. He demonstrated that on the ice Friday night.

The return of Carter Kostuch is a good news story. In the mind of T Puck, it is the most significant local sports story of the week, trumping the raising of the championship banner of the Sudbury Five.

Hopefully, the return of Carter Kostuch will inspire his teammates, and hopefully, it will galvanize a locker room that will need everyone on board if the Wolves are going to have any sort of success in the playoffs.

T Puck is certain that many of you probably wonder why T Puck takes the time to write these blogs.

The reason is that the Sudbury Wolves organization and its many sycophants present a carefully choreographed version of what they want the fans to believe is the truth. After doing these blogs for a few years, T Puck has determined that the truth is a curious and nebulous concept at times for the Sudbury Wolves.

Fans and season-ticket holders of the Sudbury Wolves deserve accurate and truthful information. This blog attempts to cut through a lot of the spin and information put forward by team management, and it tries to give the audience a truthful account of what is going on. This is often not the case in the local print media, that is patronizing to the team to a fault.

The Wolves have a return engagement with the Battalion in North Bay on Sunday afternoon. T Puck believes that coach Scott Barney will continue his current pattern of rotating starting goaltenders, and that he will start Bjorn Bronas in goal on Sunday afternoon.