The Lakehead Thunderwolves were defeated 3-2 by the Waterloo Warriors at the Columbia Ice Field on Saturday night, the Wolves second close loss in two nights.
Waterloo got on the board first when Nick Chyzowski held the puck on a two-on-one break and fired a hard wrister past Lakehead goalie Nic Renyard low on the glove side just 3:19 into the game.
The Thunderwolves evened the score at 4:51 when Tomas Soustal scored from the slot after a nice set up by Dylan Butler.
Jordan Larson put Lakehead up 2-1 when he dented the twine behind Warriors’ netminder Trevor Martin at 13:48 of the second period, with Scott Gall getting the assist.
Waterloo replied less than a minute later when Jack Scanlan sped down the right wing and got past Wolves’ defenceman Jonathon Masters on the outside before cutting to the middle and flipping a backhander behind Renyard.
Waterloo come out strong in the third, forcing Renyard to make three big saves in a row to keep the game tied, but Cole Murphy got the winner on a Warriors’ power play at 3:27 when he scooped up the puck in the corner, swooped in front and went low to Renyard’s stick side.
Daniel Del Paggio nearly tied the game on a great chance with a little over a minute to go, but a nice pad save by Martin kept Lakehead from getting the equalizer.
Total shots on goal in the game were 31-28 in favor of the Thunderwolves.
For the night, Lakehead went 0-for-4 on the power play, while Waterloo was 1-for-3.
The loss drops the Thunderwolves into fourth place in the West Division, with an OUA record of 8-5-1 (12-6-1 overall).
Lakehead will return home to host the first-place Ryerson Rams in a pair of games at the Fort William Gardens next weekend.