Welcome to Thunderwolves' Diary! This is the first in a weekly journal series by Thunderwolves' second year forward Wyatt "Jared"Tunnicliffe, allowing all Lakehead hockey fans an inside look at the team and its season from a player's viewpoint. Enjoy!
Editor's Note: Wyatt scored his first hat trick as a Thunderwolf against UBCin the Sep. 27 game. It wasespecically enjoyable for him as he hails from British Columbia!
Well, the boys' first weekend of games was a long time coming. It was a long and difficult off-season after our loss at the National Championships last spring. The guys have all come back to Thunder Bay in excellent shape and are geared up for another run at the CIS title. I would first like to thank all of our fans for their tremendous support during our season ticket drive, and all those who make their way out to the Gardens every weekend to watch us compete. We are truly blessed to have such a loyal following. You are our seventh man on the ice!
To say that the boys were geared up for this past weekend would be an understatement. The dressing room had a cool atmosphere before both games, which is always a positive sign with our team. Even though we have been skating hard in practise, a game situation can never be duplicated. This may have been the cause for some scrabbly stretches throughout the weekend's play. However, the fellas showed their usual passion for the win, and we managed to pull out the 4 points. We will only improve with further game conditioning and the chemistry between our lines will begin to click with more time together.
I was impressed by our new recruits. Callaway has a great shot and scored a beautiful goal from the point, Self brings tremendous size in the d-zone, Wehrstedt has great speed, Wycisk showed consistent grit, and Cava and Kuokkanen will be a dangerous combo this season.
Once again, Grant McCune was definitely our MVP against UBC. Without his huge saves during our sloppy sections of play in both games, we may have been on the wrong end of a few goals. I would like to send a special thank-you out to linematesRobert Hillier and Murray Magill for their unselfish play this weekend....helping me get the monkey off my back early this season. It felt especially good against the guys from UBC.