In a game marred by an overabundance of penalties; the No. 5 Lakehead Thunderwolves earned a weekend sweep over their OUA Far West divisional rivals Laurier with a 7-5 win Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay. The Wolves fought back from a 3-1 deficit two thirds of the way into the second period and then exploded for five goals in the third to get the win.
The Wolves now have a 21-3-1 OUA record (25-7-1 overall); good for 43 points and the best record in the OUA. Lakehead remains in first place in the very competitive OUA Far West Division; five points ahead of Western and nine ahead of Laurier. Lauriers OUA record goes to 15-9-2; good for 32 points and they remain in third place in the OUA Far West.
Lakehead was led by assistant Captain Tobias Whelan who again played a strong overall game and notched 2 goals and 2 assists. The other Lakehead goals came from Mark Soares, Brock McPherson, Dan Speer, Andrew Brown, and Kris Hogg. McPherson also added two assists while Speer, Soares, Hogg, and Brown each added one helper. Shandor Alphonso, Andy Zulyniak, and Jordan C. Smith had two assists each. Zulyniak played well both games this weekend.
The win set a new Lakehead record for regular seasonhome wins with 12; breaking the old mark set in 03-04. The win also extended Lakehead's uninterupted regular seasonwin streak to 9 games (longest in team history); one short of the overall win streak record set in 02-03.
The weekends results put Lakeheads SSM Line of McPherson (42 points)and Speer (41 points)No. 1 and No. 2 in OUA scoring with line-mate Soares (40 points)tied for third. McPherson has now passed the Lakehead OUA Regular season scoring markof 41 points set last year by Tobias Whelan; while Speer has tied it and Soares is one point away from the old mark. Speer has also set the new Lakehead mark in regular season assists with 29; bettering last year's mark of 25 set by Whelan. The Lakehead single season goal mark of 24 is owned by Jeff Richards and was set in 02-03 (24-game regular season). Bothcaptain Andrew Brown andSoares have 19 goals apiece and are withing possible striking range of that mark with three games left to play in the regular season.
Laurier was led by Ryley Moher, with 2 goals while singles came from Rob Dmytruk, Nick Vergeer, and Jean-Michel Rizk; who scored the prettiest goal of the game on a great individual effort. Matt Grennier added three assists for the Hawks.
Lakehead freshman goalie Kyle Moir (6-3-1 OUA) and Laurier netminder Jeff MacDougald (8-7 OUA) each allowed five goals on the night; but each made a bushel of spectacular saves; MacDougald making three on breakaways and Moir stopping one breakaway and making an incredible blocker save late in the second period that may have been the turning point of the game for the Wolves.
Shots on goal were 40-31 Lakehead in the game. Laurier was 3-10 on the powerplay while Lakehead went 5-12.
It was Seniors Night Saturday and the Wolves held a special pre-game ceremony for defenseman Matt Jacques and forward Mike Wehrstedt. Jacques played an excellent defensive game for the Wolves Saturday and Wehrstedt notched an assist; his 100th overall career point for the Thunderwolves.
The Molsons Three Stars, as chosen by Bryan Wyatt of CKPR FM Radio, were:
1) Lakehead: Tobias Whelan
2) Laurier: Matt Grennier
3) Lakehead: Andy Zulyniak
Lakehead ends the regular season on the road next weekend with another tough three-games-in-three days away journey that sees them play Toronto on Friday night, Western on Saturday night, and Western again on Sunday afternoon.
Game Summary: Laurier 5 at Lakehead 7 - Feb 2, 2008
1st Period
Scoring
1. Laurier, R. Dmytruk (6) (M. Grennier, M. Voakes) 10:19 PP
2. Lakehead, M. Soares (19) (B. McPherson, J. Smith) 13:26 PP