The Lakehead Thunderwolves bolted out to an early lead and held on for a 7-4 win over the Concordia Stingers at the Ed Meagher Arena in Montreal on Saturday.
Like the night before, the Thunderwolves had a 5-0 lead before the Stingers even got on the scoreboard.
Mike Quesnele opened the scoring for the Wolves with a powerplay goal at 2:07 of the first period. Matt Caria and Victor Anilane added to the total, giving Lakehead a 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
Caria notched his second of the game on another Lakehead powerplay at 1:28 of the second stanza, and then Adam Sergerie beat Concordia goaltender Maxime Joyal to make it 5-0 Wolves just under 3 minutes into the period.
Concordia then came to life and Charles Messier and Kyle Kelly scored a couple of quick ones just 18 seconds apart to narrow the Wolves lead to 5-2 by the 5:10 mark. Trevor Gamache found the twine late in the period to give Lakehead a seemingly comfortable 6-2 lead going into the third.
The Stingers scored another pair of goals just over a minute apart when Alexandre Monahan put one past Wolves goalie Kyle Moir at 7:33 of the third on the powerplay, followed by an even-strength goal by George Lovatsis at 8:34. Suddenly, the Thunderwolves lead was not quite so comfortable. But Lakehead held onto the 6-4 lead until late in the period when the Thunderwolves Devin Welsh notched his third goal of the season to ice the win and round out the scoring at the 16:36 mark.
Matt Caria continuted his torrid scoring pace, leading the Wolves with 2 goals and 2 assists, giving him 4 pointsinthe game. Combined with his 3 points on Friday night, Caria tallied 7 points on the weekend.
The victory was Lakeheads seventh in a row, and gives the Wolves an 11-4-1 record in OUA play, good for sole possession of second place in the West Division.
The Thunderwolves return home to the Fort William Gardens next weekend, for a pair of games with the Regina Cougars.