In what has become a rite of passage overthe last three Springs, the No. 4 Lakehead Thunderwolves take on the No. 2 Western Mustangs in the OUA Far West Division Finals with game one set for Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. EST at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay. The winner of this highly anticipated series gets a guaranteed trip to the Queen's Cup as Division Champion. One change this year is that Mustangs have an insurance policy because, if the Thunderwolves defeat them, Western will still be guaranteed at least one game at the Queen's Cup as the tournament host.
Game two will be Friday night in London at the Thomson Arena on the Western Campus and Game three will be Saturday night in London if necessary. Games Two and Three will be broadcast live in Thunder Bay on 580 CKPR AM and across Canada on the internet at www.ckpr.com with game time at 7:30 p.m. EST.
Lakehead made it to the finals by defeating the Waterloo Warriors in the Far West Semi-Finals by scores of 5-1 and 12-1. Lakehead had an OUA record of 18-4-2 and are 27-6-3 overall. Western was 21-3 in OUA play and 25-9-0 overall. Western has a 12-5 edge in victories against Lakehead since the Thunderwolves joined the OUA but the last two seasons have seen the two teams play each other even. This year, the teams split their four games with each winning one game in the other's home arena. Western defeated Lakehead 2-games-to-1 in the 2001-2002 Division Finals and went on to win the CIS national championships while the Thunderwolves won last year by the same 2-1 margin and went on to their first national championships since joining the OUA.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said the series will be a battle. "The bell is going to ring for Round 3 of the best rivalry in CIS hockey, with Rounds 1 and 2 a draw. It doesn't get any better than this, our season series were 4 playoff-intense games and all the games were decided by one goal, excluding the last game that had an empty net goal. We have the utmost respect for Coach Singer and his team as they bring the OUA's best offense to play the #2 defense; all games could very well go to OT; with small margins in each games to push the balance one way or the other. The true winners are all the great CIS hockey fans in Thunder Bay and London!!"
The series will be feature a lot of offensive firepower as Western led the CIS in goals scored with 148 while Lakehead was third with 128. The Mustangs feature perhaps the best line in the CIS comprised of Captain Justin Davis (15g and 31a for 46 points; 1st OUA), rookie Mike Rice (14g and 23a for 37 points; 7th OUA), and Mike Stathopoulos (18g and 28a for 46 points; 1st OUA). Lakehead counters with speedster Jeff Richards (18g and 21 a for 41 points; 2nd OUA), Captain Joel Scherban (14g and 23a for 37 points; 6th OUA), and Bryan Duce (13g and 12a for 25 points). Murray Magill has been hot of late for the Wolves as has Chris Shaffer, who seems to be returning to form offensively. Lakehead concentrated on defense in their series against Waterloo and their defensive pairings of MikeJacobsen and Kris Callaway, Erik Lodge and MattKenny, and HugoLehoux and SteveRawski were extremely strongover the two games.
The Mustangs had the second best winning percentage in the CIS at .875 while Lakehead was third at .792. The Thunderwolves had the edge in goals against, placing third in the CIS by allowing only 59 while Western was in a three-way tie for seventh allowing 72. Both teams feature tough starting goaltenders who come up big in clutch games. Lakehead's Grant McCune had an 11-4-1 OUA record and