Yahoo Sports Walton And Delic Raise Wolves Past Steelheads In OT Thriller
The New Year's Eve tilt between the Brampton Steelheads and the visiting Sudbury Wolves ended in a 6-5 overtime victory for Sudbury. The Wolves' victory came in no small part due to the efforts of Kieron Walton and Kocha Delic.
Walton, the Winnipeg Jets' sixth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, is in the midst of his most productive season in the OHL. He leads the Wolves with 58 points in 33 games. Walton scored two goals and two assists in the game against Brampton.
Overage forward Delic has 200 points in 200 career games with Sudbury. He sits second in points on the team with 38. He recorded a hat trick and added an assist in last night's contest.
Delic scored the first goal of the game on a wrist shot that he ripped past Anthony Paolini to get the scoring started on the power play.
His second goal came in the second period. He regained the lead for Sudbury by tipping a point shot past Paolini to make it 3-2.
Halfway through the period, Walton extended the lead by slamming a one-timer into the back of the net making it 4-2. The goal came in the dying seconds of a 4-on-3 power play.
Brampton then surged back into the game scoring three unanswered goals to take a 5-4 lead.
Delic tied the game and completed his hat trick with his second power-play goal of the game. He took the back door pass from Walton and lifted the puck over Paolini's pad.
![Kocha Delic playing for Sudbury. Delic is a point-per-game player over the course of 200 OHL games [Terry Wilson/OHL Images].](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/cbLvNXIdH.xoMTfblCMGFw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTc2OA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_hockey_news_articles_331/40905defcd86d0cb07143f36a2573d11)
Five minutes later the buzzer sounded with the teams deadlocked at five goals apiece. Sudbury started the overtime frame with several quality scoring opportunities with a goal being called back for goalie interference.
Walton then busted down the far side and stopped up on a 2-on-1 before firing the puck on goal. The puck squirted past Paolini and the game ended 6-5.
The much-needed two points ties Sudbury with Kingston for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Walton and Delic's fingerprints are all over this game with a combined eight points.
The only negative for Sudbury is that this is a Brampton squad missing Carson Rehkopf, Porter Martone and Adam Zidlicky who are all at the World Junior Championship.
Walton's performance is one of the most surprising this season. He's tied with Liam Greentree for third in league scoring ahead of Beckett Sennecke and Ilya Protas who were drafted much higher than Walton.
In him, the Jets seem to have found a value pick that has taken a huge step forward in his post-draft year. There is still a lot of time left in the year, but if he stays on his current pace, he will finish with 119 points.
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