The Lakehead Thunderwolves started slowly but stormed back from a three-goal deficit to defeat the Laurier Golden Hawks 4-3 in overtime at Sun Life Arena in Waterloo on Friday night.
Laurier carried the play for most of the first two periods, but Lakehead goalie Devin Green did his best to keep the Hawks at bay and the Wolves within striking distance.
After a scoreless first period, Laurier tallied three straight goals in the second to open up a 3-0 lead on the Thunderwolves.
Will Cook was the first to beat Green with a power play marker at 4:09 of the middle stanza.
Lauriers Jacob Hetherington converted at 7:42, and Derek Shoenmakers added another with just over two minutes remaining to give the Hawks a comfortable 3-0 lead heading into the third.
Well, maybe not so comfortable. Lakehead turned the tables and completely dominated Laurier in the final 20 minutes of regulation.
Cody Alcock was the first to solve Laurier netminder Colin Furlong 2:26 into the third period, and Dylan Butler followed suit at 5:31 to narrow the gap to 3-2.
Justin Sefton evened the score while Lakehead was on the power play with only 1:46 remaining to send the game into overtime.
The first overtime period of four-on-four action solved nothing, sending the match into a second session with only three skaters aside.
It looked as though the contest was going to have to be decided in a shootout, but Carson Dubchak broke the deadlock with just six seconds left in O.T. to give Lakehead the win.
For the night, Lakehead went 1-for-3 on the power play, while Laurier was 1-for-5.
Shots on goal in the game were 38-32 for the Golden Hawks.
The Thunderwolves will look to carry the momentum into the Saturday rematch, with the opening face-off set for 7:30 p.m.