The Lakehead Thunderwolves edged the Brock Badgers in dramatic fashion with a 3-2 overtime win in front of 2,486 fans at the Fort William Gardens on Friday night.
Goaltender Nic Renyard was outstanding in the Lakehead net and Brock netminder Clint Windsor was also sharp at the other end of the ice, and their play resulted in a scoreless first period.
Lakehead got two quick goals early in the second to break the deadlock, the first coming when defenceman Jonathon Masters jumped into the play and scored on a nice set-up by Daniel Del Paggio and E.J. Faust at the 1:21 mark.
Less than two minutes later, Trevor Hynnes lifted the puck over a sprawled Windsor, with Austin McDonald and Devin Fullum picking up the assists.
Brock narrowed Lakehead's lead to one with a short-handed goal when Brandon O'Quinn broke in alone on Renyard and beat him with a backhander on the glove side with 4:21 left in the middle frame.
Both teams traded chances in the third, and Renyard made several brilliant saves to stymie the Badgers until Mack Lemmon knocked home a rebound at 17:39, sending the game into a five-minute, sudden-death overtime period.
The Thunderwolves almost ended it when Scott Gall rang one off the post early on in the extra session, and Brennan Dubchak was stopped point-blank by Windsor shortly after.
It looked like the contest would have to be settled in a shootout until Dylan Butler fed Del Paggio, who rifled the puck past Windsor high on the glove side with just six seconds left on the clock.
Total shots on goal for the night were 38-34 in favor of the Badgers.
Neither team was able to score on the power play, with Lakehead having only two attempts compared to six for Brock.
The win was the third in a row for the Wolves and improves their OUA record to 3-3-1 and 5-5-1 overall.
The Molson Three Stars of the Game were:
1. Nick Renyard, Lakehead
2. Daniel Del Paggio, Lakehead
3. Jonathon Masters, Lakehead
The Thunderwolves and Badgers will face-off again tomorrow night beginning at 7:00 PM.