The No. 10 Lakehead Thunderwolves open up their OUA playoff campaign with a first round Best-of-Three series vs. the Guelph Gryphons with Game One on Wednesday night in Guelph. Lakehead posted a 15-8-1 OUA record (23-16-2-1 overall) while Guelph was 8-11-4-1 in OUA play and 10-14-4-1 overall. Lakehead is coming off two hard losses at home to Western while Guelph ended their regular season with a tough loss to York and a final-game win over Brock, which put them in the playoffs.
Game Two will be played Friday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay; while Game Three will be played Saturday night at the Gardens if necessary. Game times in Thunder Bay are 7:30 pm EST. Wednesday's game from Guelph can be heard live at 7:00 pm EST in Thunder Bay on 580 CKPR AM radio and online at www.ckpr.com with Bryan Wyatt and Chris Prystanski calling all the action.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said his team has to be prepared against a very tough Guelph squad. "We are looking forward to playing Guelph; they played us very tough in January when we played to a 4-4 tie and then defeated them 4-2 (including an empty net goal). The Gryphons are going to be a tough opponent, and they have played very well during the second half. Guelph has a quality goaltender in Ken Ritson and one of best forward lines in the OUA in Scott Rozendal, Jesse Pyatt, and Clayton Carson. They play extremely well in their own rink. We have all the respect in the world for their hockey program and you can rest assured that Coach Reid and his staff will have their squad ready to go on Wednesday."
Head to Head: These will be the 9th, 10th, and possibly 11th matches between the two squads, with the Thunderwolves having a 5-2-1 record against the Gryphons. However, most of the games between these two sides have been very hard fought. Lakehead has outscored Guelph 42-30 in the eight previous games. Lakehead enters the playoffs ranked third in the CIS in offense with 4.4 goals per game while Guelph is 20th with 3 goals per game. Lakehead is 9th in team defense allowing 2.7 goals per game while Guelph is tied for 22nd allowing 4.1 per game.
Lakehead will need to find the offensive spark it lacked in last weekend's two losses against Western. The Wolves will need Jeff Richards, Joel Scherban, and Peter Cava to be sparkplugs. Richards has 12 goals and 19 assists, which is good for 8th in the OUA and 19th in the CIS. Scherban has 16 goals and 11 assists, which puts him in 16th in OUA scoring. Lakehead will need Cava's (9 goals, 16 assists) creativity and also Murray Magill to start converting some of Cava's great passes. Players like Jason Lange, Mike Wehrstedt, Tobias Whelan, Brad Priestlay, Austin Wycisk, and Andrew Brown must also share the offensive load.
Lakehead's small defensive corps of Mike Self, Hugo Lehoux, Steve Rawski, and Dene Poulin must also be careful of defensive zone mistakes as Guelph's big line led by Rozendal can put the puck in the net. The last line of defense, Chris Whitley (9-4-1, GAA 2.38, Save % .917) and Grant McCune (6-4, GAA 3.03, Save % .908) must be in playoff form and be very sharp to deny the Guelph snipers.
Guelph Head Coach Jeff Reid said his team is ready for the playoffs. "I think our team is excited about getting in the playoffs, and having a lot of Thunder Bay players on the team, the excitement level is very high. Ken Ritson is the backbone of our team, and if he plays well, he gives us a chance to win. If we continue to play smart disciplined hockey, and if our best players are our best players, we have a chance t