The Lakehead Thunderwolves scored an impressive 4-0 victory over the visiting Les Patriotes de la Universite du Quebec a Trois Rivieres in OUA non-conference play in Thunder Bay Friday night. Lakehead played a disciplined style of play that seemed to stymie UQTR's potent offense for most of the evening. Penalties proved costly to UQTR as 2 of Lakhead's 4 goals came on the powerplay.
The first period was close checking and fast-paced with both teams getting some good scoring chances.
Lakehead's Chris Shaffer opened the scoring with a power play goal at 12:49 of the second, assisted by Matt Kenny and Troy Kahler. The second period saw Lakehead have a lot of good scoring opportunities, and UQTR's netminder Eric Desjardins making some nice stops. Lakhead's goalkeeper made a great save near the end of the period off of UQTR sniper Jean-Phillippe Pare.
The third period saw the Thunderwolves offense open up with three unanswered goals. The first was a powerplay goal from Bryan Duce at the 44 second mark, assisted by Jeff Richards and Joel Scherban. The second came at 8:30 mark, when Lakehead's Tyler Williamson took a blistering high slapshot from the blue line that went in over the right shoulder of Desjardins. The last goal came at 13:09 of the period when the Thunderwolves Mike Jacobsen scored on a nice passing play from Bryan Duce and Joel Scherban.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau was happy with his team's performance.
"We played a textbook game. We killed out penalties well and we were very disciplined in our overall play and at controlling our emotions on the ice. We still have to play them again tomorrow, and it's going to be another tough game."
The Three Stars were:
1) Lakehead's Chris Shaffer
2) Lakehead's Joel Scherban
3) Lakehead's Grant McCune
My Twolves Shout-Outs go to Shawn Perring for being the Rock on Defense, and Joel Scherban for his hustle and puck control. The Thunderwolves outshot UQTR 37-16. Attendance at the game was 2376. The two teams take to the ice Saturday night at 7:30 at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay in the second game of their series.