The Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team host the Guelph Gryphons in Lakeheads last regular season home stand of the season. This will be a crucial weekend for the Wolves as every game is must win in the race for an OUA West playoff spot. Lakehead is coming off a home split with Waterloo while Guelph is coming off a loss to York and a win over Brock. The Wolves will be honouring eight graduating seniors in special ceremonies before both games; Jeff Richards, Hugo Lehoux, Jason Lange, and Murray Magill on Friday and Joel Scherban, Grant McCune, Craig Priestlay, and Erik Lodge on Saturday.
The Thunderwolves are 9-7-2 in OUA play (13-13-4 overall) while Guelph is 5-10-3 in conference play and 9-16-4 overall. Lakehead is 11th in the CIS in goals per game at 3.5 while Guelph is 13th at 3.3 per game. Lakehead is tied for fourth in the CIS in goals allowed per game at 2.5 while Guelph is tied for 16th with 3.6.
Head to Head:
The Thunderwolves are 7-2-1 against Guelph (5-2-1 regular season, 2-0 playoffs) but the Gryphons always play Lakehead very tough. Lakehead has outscored Guelph 49-33 in those ten games. However, considering that OUA leading scorer Jesse Pyatt and goaltender Ken Ritson, who always plays great against Lakehead, will be playing in front of family and friends in their hometown of Thunder Bay; fans should expect a very tough series.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said his team must be ready to play. We are in a dogfight for a playoff spot; we have put ourselves in this predicament and all games left are worth valuable points. We must compete with discipline from start to finish; we are playing a high scoring team with some players who can finish very well, and we all know how well Ken Ritson has performed against us in the past. These two games will be intense and playoff points up for grabs.
Lakehead found some scoring last weekend against a very tough Waterloo team; nine goals in two games. However, five of those goals came from defensemen Mike Jacobsen (7 goals, 9 assists) and Matt Jacques (4 goals, 5 assists). Defensemen scoring is a positive development for Lakehead but the team needs more scoring from its forwards; many of whom have been snake bitten in recent games.
Jeff Richards (9 goals, 13 assists; tied 6th OUA) played perhaps his best hockey of the year against Waterloo but only scored one goal. The Wolves desperately need their sniper to explode on the goal scoring front. Jason Lange and Murray Magill both had numerous chances against Waterloo and Western and need to start converting. Captain Joel Scherban (10 goals, 9 assists) play will also be key, and Lakehead fans hope that Scherbans stamina will continue to improve as he adjusts to his insulin treatments.
Mike Wehrsted (4 goals, 8 assists) made an impressive return against Waterloo last weekend, and although he lacked stamina, he did add a spark and notched four assists. Mark Robinson continued his tenacious play as well. However, Lakehead really needs scoring from players like Dan Speer, Shandor Alphonso, Tobias Whelan, and Brad Priestlay; all talented players who need to score if the Wolves are going to make a serious playoff run.
Although Lakehead is a CIS leader in goals allowed, the defense has still been giving up the puck recently. Defenders like Mike Self, Hugo Lehoux, Erik Lodge, Drew Kivell and Steve Rawski have to give better support to goaltenders Grant McCune and Chris Whitley. Against Waterloo, Lehoux and Self played better and Kivell was impressive at times.
Netminders Whitley (6-2-2, GAA 1.87, SV% .930) and McCune (3-5-0, GAA 3.09, SV% .900) have probably been the most consistent players on the team this season and this is a point of confidence for the squad. Defenseman Chris Callaway remains out due to injury and will probably miss the remainder of the season.
Lakehead 05-06 Results:
Sat Jan 2