The No. 5 Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey host their first ever OUA Queens Cup Championship Game this Saturday against the No. 2 McGill Redmen at 7:30 pm EST at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay. The game will be videowebcast live on a pay-per-view basis with ordering info available at www.thunderwolveshockey.com.
Thunder Bay native Katie Weatherston will perform the ceremonial faceoff before the game and will also be honoured in a special pre-game ceremony. Weatherston is a member of the Canadian Olympic women's hockey team that won gold in Turin, Italy last month and she is also a star player for the Dartmouth "Big Green" of the NCAA.
The Thunderwolves are coming off a hard-fought 2-1 OUA Semi Final playoff win over the No. 9 Laurier Golden Hawks while McGill defeated the UQTR Patriotes 2-0 in two very tough games; one going to double OT. Lakehead enters the weekend with an overall 19-11-2 OUA mark (6-2 playoffs) and 23-17-4 overall while McGill has an OUA overall mark of 24-2-3 (4-1 playoffs) and are 30-6-3 overall.
Although both teams are already assured of berths at the CIS National Championships in Edmonton from March 23rd to 26th; they are both determined to lift the Queen's Cup as Lakehead is looking for its first ever OUA title and Queens Cup Championship while McGill has not won the Queens Cup since 1945-46. The Redmen have won the Queens Cup thirteen times; second most to the Toronto Varsity Blues 41 titles.
The series will pit McGills tenacious record-setting defense against the fiery and gritty ground-and-pound Thunderwolves. It also pits the 129 year old McGill team, the oldest (university) hockey team in Canada (and the world), against the newest team in the CIS; the five year old Thunderwolves. Lakehead will also be putting its five year long undefeated home playoff record on the line; a run that has seen them go 12-0 in the noisy confines of the Fort William Gardens.
Lakehead was tied for 8th in CIS regular season play in goals for at 3.6 while McGill was tied for fifth at 3.9. Lakehead was tied for 5th in CIS regular season goals allowed at 2.5 per game while McGill led the CIS at 1.21. Lakehead has scored 3.75 goals per game in the playoffs and allowed 2.9 while McGill has scored 3 per game and allowed 2.2 per game.
Head to Head:
In Lakeheads five seasons of OUA play, they have only met McGill three times in non-conference games; and Lakehead went 3-0 in those games outscoring McGill 16-6. All three games took place last season; one in Montreal and two in Thunder Bay.
Tomorrow: In Depth Team Previews.