The Lakehead Thunderwolves hockey team fell 7-4 to the Western Ontario Mustangs at Thompson Arena in London, Ontario on Saturday night.
The Mustangs opened the scoring at 6:05 of the first period when Yashar Farmanara beat Lakehead starting goalie Alex Dupuis. and then increased its lead to 2-0 at 11:23 on a goal by Jesse Harnden. The Wolves finally solved Mustangs netminder Josh Unice for the first time this season on a Matt Caria marker at 14:22, on a goal set up by Thomas Frazee and Ryan McDonald. But with only 13 seconds left in the opening period, Keaton Turkiewicz put the Mustangs up 3-1 heading into the second.
Mike Hammond fed Trevor Gamache who beat Unice at 3:22 of the middle frame to narrow the Mustangs lead to 3-2. Steve Reese restored Westerns two-goal margin with a blast from the slot while the Mustangs had the man-advantage at 6:09. Western Ontarios fourth goal chased Alex Dupuis from the Lakehead net, and he was replaced by Jeff Bosch.
Just over a minute later, Brennan Menard found himself alone in front of Unice after being set up by Mike Hammond and Gamache. Menard made a nice move, out-waiting Unice and sliding the puck underneath him to cut the lead to 4-3 at the 7:32 mark. But once again Western replied late in the period, this time scoring a short-handed goal as Jason Furlong beat Bosch on a two-on-one with only 48 seconds remaining in the second. That goal gave the Mustangs a 5-3 lead heading into the final period.
There was certainly no quit in the Thunderwolves this night, and Andrew Wilkins narrowed the Western lead to 5-4 by putting the puck in what was almost an open net after being beautifully set up by Menard at 9:53 of the third. Mitch Fillman was credited with the second assist on the goal. But Turkiewicz, the OUAs leading scorer, struck again for the Mustangs when he rifled a low slap-shot from the face-off circle past Bosch, giving Western a 6-4 lead at 16:29 of the third. Less than 30 seconds later, Western widened the gap to 7-4 when Harden came in hard at the net and slid the puck underneath Bosch just before slamming into him, knocking the net of the moorings and injuring the Lakehead netminder. Bosch had to be taken off the ice at 16:57 of the third, and Alex Dupuis had to go back into the Wolves net to finish out the game.
Western Ontario hung on for the 7-4 win, despite a lot of offensive pressure from Lakehead. The Thunderwolves outshot the Mustangs in all three periods and by a total margin of 41-21 for the game.
After two straight weekends on the road, Lakehead will head home to finish out the regular season with a pair of games versus the Brock Badgers at the Fort William Gardens next Friday and Saturday night. This will be a crucial series, as both teams are still fighting for playoff seeding and the associated home ice advantage that goes with it.