2008 National U18 Club Championship

WOLVES HOLD OFF BLIZZARD TO STAY UNDEFEATED

Stefan Herrington and Craig Laliberte scored 49 seconds apart midway through the second period as the Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves held off a late charge to register a 3-2 win over the Séminaire Saint-François Blizzard on Wednesday.

Laliberte, the Wolves’ leading scorer during the regular season, scored his first two goals of the 2008 TELUS Cup to pace Sudbury, who remained unbeaten with two wins and a tie in their three games. He also picked up the Wolves’ player of the game award.

Guillaume Asselin scored twice and earned player of the game honours for the Blizzard, who dropped their second in a row after on opening-day win against Cole Harbour on Monday.

It was Saint-François who struck first, as Asselin took a pass in the slot from Frédérick Roy and snapped a shot past Sudbury goaltender Christopher McDougall at the 14:26 mark.

But it took just 19 seconds for the Wolves to reply, as captain Mathieu Lecours, the tournament’s leading scorer with seven points in three games, carried the puck over the Blizzard blueline and put a pass right onto the tape of Laliberte, who tipped the puck over the shoulder of Saint-François netminder Jean-Michel Fortier to draw Sudbury even.

The Wolves, who entered the game with the tournament’s third-best powerplay – clicking at 24 per cent – took advantage of a pair of Saint-François penalties to take a quick two-goal lead in the second period, as Herrington scored at 8:07, followed by Laliberte with his second at 8:56.

Despite outshooting Sudbury 20-18 in the opening two periods the Blizzard found themselves down by a pair of goals entering the third period, but got a quick spark when Asselin beat McDougall for the second time just 58 seconds after the period’s opening face-off.

The Blizzard swarmed the Sudbury goal in the final 20 minutes, outshooting the Central Region champions 10-5, but could not get the equalizer past McDougall, who withstood a furious rally in the dying minutes to clinch the victory for the Wolves.

Sudbury looks to wrap up a semi-final berth on Thursday, when they face the Atlantic Region champions from Cole Harbour at 12:00 p.m. ET, while the Blizzard look to get back to their winning ways when they take on the Calgary Buffaloes at 4:00 p.m. ET.