One of CIS hockey's most intense rivalries resumes this weekend as the No. 5 Lakehead Thunderwolves end OUA regular season play with two crucial OUA Far West Division games against the No. 8 Western Mustangs this Friday night and Saturday afternoon at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay.
Both teams are tied for first in the division with 31 points and Lakehead (15-6-1 OUA, 23-14-2-1 overall) only needs a weekend split against the Mustangs (15-6-0-1 OUA, 20-11-0-1 overall) as Lakehead would then have a better head-to-head record. The four division winners in the OUA get a first round playoff bye. Lakehead is coming off a home sweep over Brock while Western is coming off a loss against Laurier and a win over Guelph.
Saturday's afternoon game kicks off at 2:00 pm EST and will be televised live and in its entirety by Thunder Bay Television-CTV Channel 4, Cable 6 and Bell Express Vu Channel 222 locally in Thunder Bay, and nationally on Channel 314 on Star Choice Satellite television. TBT's Bryan Wyatt and Chris Prystanski will be calling all the action on TBT-CTV. Segments of the game will be carried live by TSN as part of their "Hockey Lives Here" special being broadcast on Saturday from 12 Noon to 6 pm EST. Dave Randorf will call the TSN play by play and Gary Green will do colour commentary. As well, TSN will be doing interviews and features on the unique Thunderwolves hockey program and its' on and off ice success in less than four seasons of play.
Head-To-Head: The Mustangs have a 13-9 all-time record against the Thunderwolves but Lakehead won their first two meetings in London in January and the Wolves have defeated Western in the playoffs in the last two seasons. The Thunderwolves enter the series on a six game OUA unbeaten streak (5-0-1-0). Team offense will be on display as Lakehead is ranked No. 2 in the CIS with 4.7 goals per game while Western is No. 4 with 4.5. The Thunderwolves are tied for fourth in CIS team defense; allowing 2.5 goals per game while Western is tied for ninth allowing 3 goals per game.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said his team knows the importance of this weekend's series. "We are looking forward to playing the series of the year for the Far West Division regular season title and also to resuming our intense rivalry against Western. This is a schedule maker's dream; the last series of the year for all the marbles. We know that the Mustangs will be quite motivated in playing these two games as the first round bye is quite valuable in terms of healing injuries and going directly to second round. Coach Clarke Singer will have his players ready to go in an epic playoff battle atmosphere and our fans cannot wait for the puck to drop!"
Lakehead Captain Joel Scherban (16 goals, 11assists, 12th OUA) has been hot offensively for Lakehead and now has 197 overall career points; three shy of the 200 point plateau. Jeff Richards (11 goals, 19 assists, 8th OUA) has also been supplying points, as has Peter Cava (8 goals, 14 assists). A good sign for Lakehead is that Murray Magill (11g, 11a, 17th OUA) and Jason Lange (6 goals, 10 assists) have shown some offensive flair recently. Big Austin Wycisk (3 goals, 15 assists) will also be needed to pressure the Western defense. Mike Wehrstedt has also been aggressive in the offensive end and defensman/forward Andrew Brown (7 goals, 5 assists) has been playing some outstanding hockey of late.
The Thunderwolves will need rock solid defense from Hugo Lehoux, Steve Rawski, Mike Self, Dene Poulin, as well as forwards/d-men Brown and Jounni Kuokkanen. Chris Whitley seems back in form and is again solid in the Lakehead goal (9-3-1, 2.34 GAA, .930 SV%, 2nd