The No. 3 Lakehead Thunderwolves travel to Toronto this weekend for two games against defending Queen's Cup Champions York Lions. The Wolves go into the Lion's Den with a 5-1-0-0 OUA Record and are 11-3-1-1 overall. Lakehead is in first place in the OUA Far West Division with 10 points, two ahead of Western although Western has played two games less than Lakehead and are undefeated at 4-0. York is 3-3-0-1 in OUA play (6-4-0-1 overall) and are in second place in the OUA Mid West Division behind Laurier.
Lakehead is on a five game OUA winning streak and are coming off a home sweep of then No. 10 ranked Laurier. York is coming off a close win over Windsor and a close loss to Western; a match that saw the Lions drop a two goal, third period lead to the dangerous Mustangs. Lakehead is tied for the lead in goals allowed with UNB at 1.8 goals per game while York is ranked 7th at 2.4. Lakehead is tied for fifth in the CIS in goals for at 4.2 goals per game while York is 11th at 3.3.
Lakehead vs. York Head-to-Head:
If Western is Lakehead's Arch-Rival, then the Lions have turned out to be the 'Wolves nemesis. On paper, it may look like Lakehead are favourites going into the weekend, but York has a lot of talent and will have home-ice advantage. As well, York was one of the few CIS teams to score a win over NCAA opponents in the pre-season; with their 1-0 win over Northern Michigan, a team that is playing very well in the early stages of the NCAA season. Interestingly, Northern Michigan has beaten Michigan Tech three times this season and Tech handled the Thunderwolves easily in the pre-season when Lakehead visited the Huskies in Houghton, Michigan.
The Thunderwolves have a record of 5-4 against York in three seasons of OUA play, and last season were 3-1 against York. However, the Lions single win last season came when it counted as the Lions eliminated Lakehead in the Queen's Cup Semi-Final by a 3-2 score behind the excellent goaltending of Derek Dolson. In 2002-03, Lakehead also lost to York in the Queen's Cup semis.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said the Lions are a formidable team this season. "We are playing against one of our toughest opponents in the OUA; they have it all, size, speed, defense, goaltending, coaching. They love to play us tough so this will be a very challenging weekend series."
Belliveau will be counting on his improving defense against the speedy Lions. Last weekend saw Mike Self play perhaps his best hockey as a Thunderwolf and Drew Kivell also was very sharp.Jesse Baraniuk also looked good and chipped in with some offense while powerplay quarterback Erik Lodge seems to be finding his form as well.
The Thunderwolves are backstopped by the stellar goaltending tandem of Grant McCune and rookie Chris Whitley. McCune is 2-1 in OUA play with a GAA of 2.68 and a Save Percentage of .912 while Whitley is 3-0 in OUA play with a GAA of 1.00 and a Save Percentage of .969.
Last weekend vs. Laurier, the 'Wolves offense showed signs that the team is starting to mesh together as Lakehead got a strong effort from all of its forward combinations used in the series. Against the Lions, Lakehead will be counting on all of its forward combinations to play sound at both ends of the ice. Murray Magill leads Lakehead in OUA scoring with 3 goals and 5 assists (tied for 3rd in OUA), Captain Joel Scherban is next with 5 goals and 2 assists (tied for 4th OUA) while Jeff Richards is third with 2 goals and 5 assists (tied for 4th OUA). A good sign for the Thunderwolves were the offensive flashes shown last weekend against Laurier by the All-Canadian Richards who had been battling nagging injuries in the early going of the season.