The Lakehead Thunderwolves welcome the Saint Marys Huskies for highly anticipated inter-conference dogfight at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay this Friday and Saturday nights. Lakehead went 2-0 against the Manitoba Bisons last weekend at home in Thunder Bay while this will be Saint Marys first games of the CIS hockey season. This will be the first-ever meetings between the Thunderwolves and the Huskies.
The weekends games are part of the annual Zanatta Alumni Games and bi-annual Wall of Fame Induction Ceremony, Lakeheads homecoming event; as well as being part of the overall Lakehead University 40th Anniversary Weekend celebrations. So, there should be a lot of Lakehead alumni joining the Lakehead hockey faithful at the Fort William Gardens to cheer on the Wolves.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said this series will be another measuring stick for his teams early season development. Our fans will see a very entertaining team which is built on hard work, speed, and skill. Coach Steinburg had a great recruiting year and added many good OHL graduates. They are one of top teams in the AUS, which is the best conference in the CIS in terms of parity and competition level.
Lakehead showed a lot of positives in their series against Manitoba. The Wolves played four and a half out of six periods of strong hockey which is a good sign early on in the season. Returning veterans seemed to have a renewed spark in their step as exemplified by the dangerous rushes shown by two-time CIS All Canadian Jeff Richards. Fifth year senior netminder Grant McCune seems back to the form of his first three seasons and basically stole Game 2 of the Manitoba series from the Bisons when he turned aside 26 of 28 Manitoba second period shots to keep Lakehead in the game.
Other veteran forwards like Mike Wehrstedt, Murray Magill, Jason Lange, and Peter Cava played aggressive and intelligent hockey. Mark Robinson seems to have found the jump in his step again. The line of Cava, Magill, and Lange was Lakeheads best line in their two games vs. Manitoba and Cavas playmaking was in the forefront both games. Tobias Whelan showed some offense while still antagonizing the opponents with aggressive forechecking. Sophomore forward Andrew Brown has improved his speed over the summer and it showed in his play on Lakeheads first line with Joel Scherban and Richards. Freshman forward Shandor Alphonso was also very effective in his first CIS action playing hard nosed hockey.
The defense looked strong for the most part against Manitoba, except for the second period of the Saturday game when they played shorthanded for much of the period. Steve Rawski is looking much quicker and more decisive and Mike Self shows continued improvement. Both scored goals against Manitoba. Erik Lodge and Drew Kivell played well and Kivell showed he can play it tough. Freshmen Dan Rogers and Matt Jacques played like veterans; playing solid defense and moving the puck quickly. Jacques picked up his first goal as a Thunderwolf against Manitoba in the Saturday game.
The Saint Marys Huskies were 15-12-1 in AUS regular season play in 2004-05. In the AUS playoffs, the Huskies took out Prince Edward Island 2-0 in the quarter final series but lost to Moncton 2-0 in the semi-finals.
Saint Marys Head Coach Trevor Stienburg said he expects a very tough series against the Thunderwolves. We are really excited to have the opportunity to come to Thunder Bay and play one the top teams in the country. Other teams from the AUS have been to Thunder Bay and said Coach Belliveau runs a first class program. They also said that Lakehead has a great team and will be very prepared, so expect a dog fight.
Returning veteran forwards to watch for the Huskies are Ryan Lauzon who scored 15 goals