The Toronto Varsity Blues defeated the Lakehead Thunderwolves 6-4in the night game of Day 2 action Thursday night at the T Bay Tel Varsity Cup hockey tournament before 2870 fans at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay.
The win puts Toronto at 2-0 in tourney play and advances the Blues to Saturdays Varsity Cup championship game at 2:00 pm EST. Lakehead goes to 1-1, the same as Laurier, and the Wolves and Golden Hawks play Friday night at 7:30 pm EST with the winner going on to face Toronto in the tournament final on Saturday. Toronto will play Calgary, 0-2 in tourney play, on Friday afternoon at 4:00 pm EST. Both games will be videowebcast live with ordering info available on the Broadcast Page at www.thunderwolveshockey.com.
Lakehead was paced by Dan Speer with two goals while Matt Jacques and Mike Wehrstedt added a goal and two assists apiece. Anthony Pallotta led the Blues with a monster game; notching two goals and three assists. Simon Barg also starred for the Blues with three goals and an assist. Torontos other goal came from Julian Sarraino. Mark Heatley and Brendan Sherrard each added two assists.
Toronto outshot Lakehead 36-30 on the night. Lakehead went 4-9 on the powerplay while Toronto was 3-9 with the man advantage.
Toronto goaltender Ryan Grinnell was solid again between the pipes; going all the way for the Blues. Lakehead starter Matti Korhonen allowed three goals and was replaced by Chris Whitley who also allowed three.
Lakehead played great hockey in the first period and it was the Blues Grinnel who kept the score at only 1-0 for the Wolves at the first intermission. However, Toronto exploded for four goals in the second period and Lakehead was in need of another miracle third period comeback. The Wolves did score three in the third to close the gap to 5-4 but were assessed a late penalty in the last two minutes. The Blues Pallotta sealed the game with his second goal with 30 seconds left.
The Molsons Three Stars were:
1)Toronto: Anthony Pallotta
2)Toronto: Simon Barg
3)Lakehead: Dan Speer
Shots by Period:
First Period: Lakehead 14 Toronto 7
Second Period: Toronto 14 Lakehead 5
Third Period: Toronto 15 Lakehead 11
Total: Toronto 36 Lakehead 30
Goals By Period:
First Period:
1) Lakehead: 17:11 (PP) Mike Wehrstedt from Jeff Richards and Tobias Whelan
Second Period:
2) Toronto: :55 Simon Barg from Anthony Pallotta and Brenden Sherrard
3) Toronto: 3:02 (PP) Pallotta from Mark Heatley and Andre Robichaud
4) Toronto: 7:12 Barg from Pallotta
5) Toronto: 15:50 (PP) Julian Sarraino from Chris Gray and Scott Malcolm
Third Period:
6) Lakehead: 6:48 (PP) Matt Jacques from Mark Soares and Andy Zuluniak
7) Toronto: 12:45 Barge from Sherrard and Pallotta
8) Lakehead: 14:06 (PP) Dan Speer from Wehrstedt and Jacques
9) Lakehead: 16:12 (PP) Speer from Wehrstedt and Jacques
10) Toronto: 19:30 (PP) Pallotta from Barg and Heatley