The No. 3 Lakehead Thunderwolves defeated the RMC Paladins 5-2 Saturday night night before 2662 fans at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay. The win puts Lakehead's record at 8-1-0 in OUA play (12-2-0 overall). The loss drops RMC's record to 0-10-0-1 in OUA play (3-13-0-1 overall).
Lakehead was led by Austin Wycisk with a goal and an assist. The other Thunderwolves' goals came from Jeff Adduono, Bryan Duce, Kris Callaway, and Chris Shaffer. RMC's goals both came from Mike Clark.
Lakehead came out fast in the first, controlling play and peppering RMC goalie Elliot Mould. Mould was up to the task, making a lot of great stops in the first half of the period. Lakehead's Bryan Duce rang the right post at 11:35, and Kris Callaway blasted the rebound but Mould came up with a fine save. The Paladins Mike Clark fired a quick snapshot that was gloved neatly by Lakehead goalie Cory McEachran at 14:10. Lakehead's Jeff Adduono finally put the Thunderwolves on the board at 17:50, set up by a beautiful pass from Austin Wycisk who was parked behind the RMC goal. The other assist went to Shawn Perring. RMC's Mike Clark tied the game at 19:07 on the powerplay when he ripped a wrist shot high over the shoulder of McEachran. Assists went to Trevor Orriss and Jesse Bruni. Lakehead's Bryan Duce gave the lead back to Lakehead on a beautiful shorthanded effort at 19:39 when he intercepted a wayward RMC pass and broke in alone and beat Mould with a nice deke. Lakehead outshot RMC 13-6 in the first.
The Paladins tied the score at 1:12 on the powerplay when Clark took a hard shot from the point that deflected off the stick of Lakehead's Robert Hillier. The assists went to Brent Maurice and Adrian Hartley. Kris Callaway put Lakehead back in front at 4:32 when he blasted a wicked shot past Mould during a Thunderwolves penalty kill. The assist went to Craig Priestlay. Chris Shaffer made it 4-2 at 8:31 on a Lakehead powerplay. Shaffer tucked it past Mould from the left side of the net with assists going to Jeff Richards and Tyler Williamson. RMC's Mould played well in the Paladins' goal and the period ended at 4-4. Lakehead outshot RMC 12-4 in the second.
The third period saw a fair amount of minor penalties to both teams. Lakehead's Hugo Lehoux delivered a crunching check on RMC's Adrian Hartley at 7:00. Mould was again strong in the Paladins' goal for the first half of the period. RMC's Ryan Thebault laid a hard hit on Lakehead's Matt Kenny at 10:30. Lakehead's Austin Wycisk made it 5-2 at 17:12, beating Mould with the wrap-around. Assists went to Leon Cooper and Mike Wehrstedt. Lakehead outshot RMC 12-2 in the third and 37-12 in the game.
The Molson's Three Stars, as selected by Leith Dunick of Thunder Bay's Source, were:
1)Lakehead: Austin Wycisk
2)Lakehead: Kris Callaway
3)RMC: Elliot Mould
Lakehead sees action again next weekend when it travels to Southern Ontario for a three game road trip against Windsor and Toronto.
My Thunderwolves' Shout-Outs goes to Hugo Lehoux for his big bodycheck. A special thank you to Nahum Ortiz from Mexico for being a great assistant to me in the press box for the first half of the season. Nahum has been studying English at Confederation College and is a big-time hockey fanatic.He is now heading back home to Mexico. He is also the coach ofthe Mexican National Inline Hockey Team and will bereturning to Canada next June for the WorldInline Hockey Championships in London, Ontario. Thanks Nahum!!!!
It was great talking with the RMC players who didn't play in tonight's game who were sitting with the mediain the press box. Although their team didn't fare so well on the ice, they had great attitudes and were really fun and interesting to talk with. They really enjoyed the atmo