The No. 2 Lakehead Thunderwolves welcome OUA Far West Division Rivals Windsor Lancers to the Fort William Gardens for two games on Friday and Saturday nights. Lakehead is 13-1 against Windsor since the Thunderwolves came into the OUA, but the Lancers won their last meeting in Windsor in November by a 4-1 score. The two-game series will be both teams first action of the second half of the OUA season.
Lakehead go into the weekend in second place in the OUA Far West Division with a 9-2-1 OUA record and a 16-4-2 overall mark. Lakehead has 70 goals for and 33 against in OUA play. The Thunderwolves recorded a 3-1-1 record during the exam/holiday break at the Bell Cup tournament against UNB, Calgary, and York and in two non-conference games vs. the Regina Cougars.
The Thunderwolves will be looking from scoring from Jeff Richards (7 goals and 15 assists), Captain Joel Scherban (9 goals and 9 assists), Bryan Duce (9 goals and 8 assists), and freshman Mike Wehrstedt (6 goals and 9 assists). They will also be looking for scoring from players like Chris Shaffer, Robert Hillier, and Craig Priestlay. Third year player Leon Cooper has also found his scoring touch and played well during the holiday break. Defensively the team will be counting on Matt Kenny, Kris Callaway, and Mike Jacobsen to control the fast skating Lancers.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said the resurgent Lancers are a team to be reckoned with. We now have a great rivalry with the Windsor Lancers, and our two games against them this season showed a fast, well coached Lancer team. Head Coach Vern Stenlund has them playing very well and they come very hard at us every game. This will be a great series for our fans at the Gardens!
Special teams will be in the forefront this weekend as both teams can score on the powerplay and protect well on the penalty kill. Lakehead is second in the OUA on the powerplay, scoring on 24.14% of their opportunities. Windsor is fifth, scoring at a 20.83% clip with the man advantage. The Lancers are second on the penalty kill, successfully defending 90% of their penalties. Lakehead is fourth on the pk, defending 87.67% of theirs.
The Lancers arrive in Thunder Bay in third place in the OUA Far West Division with a 6-7-0-0 record (6-12 overall). The Lancers have scored 60 goals and have allowed 51. Windsor features dangerous scorers Jordie Preston (7 goals and 10 assists) and Thunder Bay fan favourite, B.J. Gaylord (6 goals and 9 assists). Freshmen Preston (Halifax Mooseheads), Graeme Lindsay (Leamington Flyers) and Alex White (Windsor Spitfires) team up on a line that is currently the highest scoring freshman line in CIS hockey. The goaltending tandem of Murray Scott and Jay Ewasiuk have provided much needed stability in the Lancer net as well.
Windsor Head Coach, and Thunder Bay native, Vern Stenlund said, in his normal understated manner, that his team will be ready for the Thunderwolves and the big noisy crowd at the Fort William Gardens. I read an article recently that used the word "rivalry" when referring to the latest Lakehead/Windsor game. In reality, a rivalry is when two teams take turns beating each other over time...for example, Lakehead certainly has a rivalry with Western. Ours is no rivalry, it's barely even a relationship; and Lakehead would have grounds for a lack of support there as well!! No, we have been beaten like a rented mule by the Thunderwolves since they came into the league, so we have a long way to go before there is any rivalry. I simply want our guys to get ready for this series in Thunder Bay and try to be competitive with one of the premier programs in the country.
The two teams take to the ice at 7:30 on Friday and Saturday nights at the Fort William Gardens.