Lakehead edged the Waterloo Warriors to give head coach Andrew Wilkins his 50th win.
The Wolves came out of the gate ready to go and provided the 2318 Thunderwolves fans with multiple opportunities to cheer early on but took until just past the midway point of the 1st period to get them out of their seats with the Wolves pressuring Waterloo around their own net, Olivier Pouliot stationed behind the net he would find Keighan Gerrie open out front and he would make no mistake finding the back of the net.
Just :33 later Colin Van Den Hurk would slide a pass across the slot to an open Josh Van Unen and he would bulge the twine to put the Wolves up by 2.
Waterloo would get going in the 2nd when Max Neil would come out of the penalty box and pick up a loose puck in the neutral zone a skate in all alone and beat Wolves netminder Christian Cicigoi to cut the lead to one.
Neil would net his second of the period 3 minutes 30 seconds later when he would get one in tight past Cicigoi to tie the game at 2.
Waterloo would get a late powerplay and Chase Campbell would find Connor Lovie open at the top of the zone and he would fire a shot through traffic and past a screened Cicigoi to put the Warriors up 3-2 heading to the 3rd.
The Thunderwolves would continue to press to tie the game up and would do so when Joe Mack would knock a shot down from Tyler Jette and slip it neatly past Warriors goalie Dan Murphy.
Lakehead would get a late powerplay and would keep the pressure on the Warriors and Spencer Blackwell would find Colin Van Den Hurk who would skate in on the right wing and slip a tight angle shot between Murpy and the post to give the Wolves the lead.
Waterloo would get one last chance to try and send the game to overtime when they got a powerplay but the Wolves defence would get the job done late and the Wolves would get the 4-3 win.
Cicigoi would stop 24 of 27 shots he faced. Murphy would stop 31 of 35 shots.
Forks South 3 Stars of the Game:
- Colin Van Den Hurk - Lakehead
- Max Neil - Waterloo
- Joe Mack - Lakehead
The Wolves and Warriors wrap up the 2 game series Saturday night at 7pm. The HOCO Street party goes from 4pm-6pm Saturday with Live music, Player Meet and Greet, Molson Beer Gardens, Games and Food.