The Lakehead Thunderwolves hockey team will host the Laurier Golden Hawks for a pair of games in an OUA West Division matchup this weekend. Game times are 7:30 pm on Friday and Saturday nights at the Fort William Gardens.
Last Time Out
Lakehead travelled to Guelph last weekend, and collected two points after splitting the series with the Gryphons. Guelph won the Friday contest 5-2, but the Wolves rebounded with a 4-3 win on Saturday.
Lakehead has on OUA record of 3-1-0, and is in a three-way tie for second place in the West Division.
Laurier has only played one OUA regular season game so far this season, a 4-2 home loss to the Windsor Lancers last Saturday.
Series History
Laurier is one of the Wolves most bitter rivals. The two squads have played in the same division since 2001, and have had some great battles over the years. Lakehead holds the all-time series lead over Laurier with a record of 27-21-0 versus the Golden Hawks.
The Thunderwolves travelled to Laurier twice last season, having played the Golden Hawks as part of split-series weekends. On Lakeheads first trip to Laurier last year, they shut out the Hawks 4-0 in October, but were edged 4-2 by Laurier on their second visit last November.
Laurier last visited the Fort William Gardens in late November of 2011. Lakehead swept the Hawks winning 6-0 on the Friday and 4-3 in overtime the following night.
About the Golden Hawks
Located in Waterloo, Ontario, Laurier is one of the youngest teams in all of CIS hockey. The Golden Hawks have 12 freshmen on the roster (8 of which have major junior hockey experience), in addition to 9 sophomores.
With so much youth in the line-up, the Laurier squad has pretty much been rebuilt since Thunder Bay native Greg Puhalski took over as Head Coach three years ago.
With the graduation of last seasons OUA goalie of the year Ryan Daniels, freshman netminder Shayne Campbell is the likely heir apparent in the Hawks goal. Sophomore defenceman Matt Provost will be an anchor on the Laurier blue line; Junior Tyler Stothers and sophomore Greg Cerilli are Lauriers top returning scorers from the 2012-13 campaign.
Injury Report
Forward Carson Dubchak (knee) will be out of the line-up for at least another month, and goaltender Jeff Bosch (knee) is likely to miss another week or two. Defenceman Nathan Bruyere (ankle) will be a game-time decision. Jason Grecica (elbow) and Brennan Menard (concussion) are out indefinitely.