The Lakehead Thunderwolves lost 3-2 to the Brock Badgers Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, ON, in front of 2,800-plus fans that came out and braved the cold weather.
With captain Jordan Smith and leading scorer Matt Caria off to Turkey for the World University games, Lakehead came out looking to pick up where it left off on Friday night.
Mike Quesnele had a great scoring chance early on that he fired just wide of the net, and Brennan Menard was buzzing all over the ice in the first. Lakehead got on the board at 18:44 of the opening period on a power-play marker from Victor Anilane, with assists credited to Ryan McDonald and Kalvin Sagert.
Brock had a big second period, getting on the board at 2:35 of the middle stanza when Josh Schram put one past Lakehead goalie Kyle Moir to knot the game at 1-1. Not long after, Ryan Allen was left alone in front of the net and squeaked one through Moirs pads to put Brock in front 2-1. That wasnt all for the badgers as Matt Abercrombie fired a shot over Moirs glove-hand to put them in front 3-1 at 12:03 of the second.
Both Lakehead and Brock battled hard in the third period, with some nice chances on both sides. Lakehead pulled to within one at 6:45 of the third when Ryan McDonald out-waited Brock goaltender Kurt Jory, and flipped the puck past him to make it 3-2. The Thunderwolves pressed hard in the final minutes of the third, but couldnt convert.
The Molson 3 stars of the game were:
1.Ryan McDonald, Lakehead
2.Matt Abercrombie, Brock
3.Andrew Wilkins, Lakehead
Lakehead is in Guelph next weekend to take on the Gryphons.