Tobias Whelan scored two goals and added two assists to lead the Lakehead Thunderwolves to a 6-2 win over the visiting Windsor Lancers Saturday night before 2636 fans at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay.
This was Whelans second five-point performance for Lakehead in only four OUA regular season games. Lakeheads other goals came from Andrew Brown, Mike Wehrstedt, Dan Speer, and Dan Rogers. Windsors goals were tallied by Tyler Mckinley and Jordie Preston.
Lakehead netminder Chris Whitley was solid; turning aside 26 of 28 Windsor shots while Windsor goalie Reese Kalleitner stopped 42 of 46 Lakehead shots; and both made some good stops during the game.
Lakehead played a strong team game with a lot of hustle and their effort seemed to neutralize Windsor for most of the game. Richard Molenaar and Matt Maissoneuve were very impressive on the PK unit for Lakehead and freshman Mark Soares showed that he can be a dangerous offensive player as he came close on a few occasions.
Five of the six Lakehead goals came on the powerplay while Windsor scored one shorthanded goal. Shots on goal were 44-28 for the Thunderwolves. Lakehead was assessed 12 minor penalties while Windsor was handed out 14 minors and one misconduct.
Lakeheads OUA mark goes to 3-1 (5-4 overall) while Windsors OUA record goes to 1-3 (1-6 overall).
Lakehead jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 4:56 of the first on the powerplay when Whelan beat Kalleitner with a nice fake and roofed it; assisted by Dan Speer. Brown made it 2-0 Lakehead at 11:51 after converting a nice passing play from Maissoneuve and Molenaar.
Whelan scored his second at 2:31 of the second on the powerplay; tapping in a nice pass from Speer. Windors Mckinley fired a hard point shot at 10:42 that beat a screened Whitley; assisted by John Romic. The Wolves made it 4-1 on the powerplay at 12:12 when Wehrstedt tipped in a Matt Jacques point blast and the other assist went to Nathan Breukelman. Speer scored with the man advantage at 14:41 of the second; tucking in a perfect pass from Whelan with Mark Robinson getting the other helper.
Preston scored a beautiful shorthanded goal for the Lancers at 10:53 of the third; beating a Lakehead d-man and then faking out Whitley and knocking it home. However, Dan Rogers put the game away at 11:12 of the final stanza, again with the man advantage, when his point shot beat a screened Kalleitner. The assists went to Jarryd Brend and Whelan.
The Three Stars, as chosen by Reuben Villagracia of the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal, were:
1)Tobias Whelan: Lakehead
2)Dan Speer: Lakehead
3)Dan Rogers: Lakehead
Lakehead sees action next Friday and Saturday when they host the Brock Badgers at the Fort William Gardens with both games facing off at 7:30 pm EST.