The Lakehead Thunderwolves men's hockey team will face their toughest opponent of the young 2009-10 OUA regular season as they host the West Division-leading Brock Badgers Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24 at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Both games start at 7:30pm EST.
Entering the two-game series, Lakehead (3-0-1 OUA) trails the Badgers (4-0-0) by one point for first place in the nine-team OUA West division. Fans can expect a classic offense versus defense battle pitting the Thunderwolves and their top ranked OUA offense that has produced 27 goals in four games, against the Badgers and their tenacious defense that has conceded only eight goals in four games.
"This weekend is a critical battle for four points as Brock is a team that we will battle with in the standings all season," says Thunderwolves head coach Joel Scherban. "This year's Brock team is a prototypical hard-working Brock Badgers team. As always, they are well coached and play exceptional positional hockey."
Head to head
Lakehead has handled the Badgers in league play, posting a 12-1-3 all-time regular season record against the St. Catharines squad, 13-3-3 including the playoffs. Many Gardens faithful remember the heartbreaking 1-0 game 3 overtime loss against Brock that eliminated the Thunderwolves from the 2008 OUA playoffs. That 2-1 semi-final series loss is the only playoff match-up between the two teams.
The Wolves swept last season's series with the Badgers with a pair of 3-0 November wins at Brock.
Goal scoring between the division rivals has favoured the Thunderwolves who hold a 77-44 all-time advantage.
Lakehead Thunderwolves (5-0-1 overall, 3-0-1 OUA)
Joel Scherban's team has regained their offensive touch that disappeared at times during the 2008-09 season. His team is averaging 6.75 goals in OUA play - tops in the conference, while allowing 3.5 goals per game.
Brock McPherson has continued his torrid scoring pace of the past two seasons during which he either led or tied for the team lead in points. This season, the big forward from Brampton, Ontario has four goals and eight assists through six games. Overall, nine Thunderwolves have averaged one point or more per game.
At forward, Andy Hyvarinen has been a valuable set-up man for LU with seven assists to go with one goal. Leading the team with five goals apiece are junior Kris Hogg and fifth-year senior Scott Dobben who is coming off a Friday hat trick against UOIT.
Mark Soares (two goals, five assists) and Dan Speer (three goals, four assists) have looked strong in the early going while Adam Sergerie (four goals, one assist) has already matched his 2008-09 goal production and sits two points back of his overall offensive production from last year.
Swedish freshman Victor Anilane (one goal, five assists) has been a strong two-way addition to the roster, while Andrew Wilkins has three goals in his first CIS season.
Offense has been in steady supply from the Thunderwolves blueline, led by senior Ryan Baird (two goals, four assists), and junior Pierre-Marc Guilbault (four goals, one assist) who has tallied in each of the past three games.
Sophomore Kalvin Sagert has been steady at defense with one goal and four assists, while Bryan Wilson (one goal, two assists), Mitch Maunu (three assists) and Andy Zulyniak (three assists) have been key offensive cogs for Lakehead.
Captain Jordan Smith has been his usual physical and defensive presence while adding a pair of assists to his stat-line.
In net, junior Kyle Moir and freshman Alex Dupuis will be counted on to minimize their goals allowed against a tough Brock team that will look to keep the scores low this weekend. Moir and Dupuis both allowed five goals during their respective starts last weekend against the UOIT Ridgebacks and will look to match their strong efforts from the Guelph and York series.
Lakehead results
Oct. 17 L 5-6 OTS at UOIT
Oct. 16 W 9-5 at UOIT
Oct. 10 W 9-2 vs. York
Oct. 9 W 4-1 vs. York
Oct. 3 W 4-1 vs. Guelph (nonconference)
Oct. 2 W 7-3 vs. Guelph (nonconference)
Brock Badgers (4-4-0 overall, 4-0-0 OUA)
After reaching the CIS University Cup in 2007-08, head coach Murray Nystrom's Brock Badgers plummeted to eighth place in the OUA West standings last year. The team's fortunes seem to have changed as the Badger's scoring has increased from an anemic 2.32 goals per game last year to a respectable 3.5 goals per game in OUA play this season. As usual, a strong defense has been Brock's best attribute, as they have conceded only two goals per game in league play.
Leading the Badgers in scoring this season is junior center Vince Scott with one goal and four assists. Close behind is sophomore Derek Brochu who has three goals and one assist, while Kirk Pierce (one goal, two assists) and Ryan Allen (three assists) have also been important contributors.
Interestingly, most of the Badgers's goal-scoring has come from the blueline, led by freshman Joe Tolles from Toledo, Ohio. Tolles has three goals on the year, while junior Steve Pattison (two goals, one assist), senior Eric Toonders (one goal, two assists), and Thunder Bay native Steve Miller (one goal, two assists) also have three points on the year. Overall, eight of Brock's 14 OUA goals have come from defensemen.
In net, freshman Mark Yetman of Mount Pearl, Newfoundland has been stellar, starting all four of the team's league games, going 4-0 with a 1.96 GAA and a 0.933 SV%.
Brock results
Oct. 16 W 4-3 OTS vs. Waterloo
Oct. 10 W 5-3 at Western
Oct. 9 W 2-1 at Windsor
Oct. 3 W 3-1 at UOIT
Sept. 26 L 2-3 vs. Manitoba (nonconference)
Sept. 25 L 1-4 vs. Manitoba (nonconference)
Sept. 19 L 0-5 at New Brunswick (nonconference)
Sept. 18 L 0-4 at New Brunswick (nonconference)