Two late goals by the undefeated Windsor Lancers handed the Lakehead Thunderwolves a 5-4 loss in front of 2711 fans at the Fort William Gardens on Friday night.
Windsors Spencer Pommells scored the only goal of the first period when he beat Lakehead netminder Justin McDonald at the 18:18 mark.
Keith Grondin evened the score early in the second period when he rifled the puck past Lancers goalie Parker Van Buskirk on a nice feed from Mike Hammond. But a quick reply by Drew Palmer and another by Pommells put Windsor up 3-1 just a few minutes later.
After being set-up by Hammond and Ryan Magill, Brennen Dubchak narrowed the Lancers lead to 3-2 at the 12:24 mark to round out the scoring in the middle frame.
Hammond picked up his third helper of the night when Mitch Fillman converted on a Lakehead power play at 4:42 of the final stanza to tie the game up at 3-3. Just over two minutes later with the Wolves once again playing with the extra man, Jake Wright scored from in-close to give Lakehead a 4-3 lead, igniting the crowd in the process.
Windsors Palmer notched his second goal of the game with just over a minute remaining in the contest, and at that point it looked like the game was headed for overtime. But the ever-dangerous Pommells struck again with only five seconds left on the clock, completing his hat-trick and stunning the Lakehead faithful.
The Molson Three Stars of the game were:
1.Spencer Pommells, Windsor
2.Mike Hammond, Lakehead
3.Brennen Dubchak, Lakehead
The Thunderwolves will look to rebound when the two teams square off again at the Fort William Gardens on Saturday night.