The Lakehead Thunderwolves hockey team will host the Brock Badgers for a pair of games at the Fort William Gardens this weekend. Game times are 7:30 pm on Friday and Saturday nights.
Last Time Out
Lakehead opened the season at home last weekend versus the Ottawa Gee Gees, and split the series against a quality opponent. Despite a 2-0 second period lead on Friday, Ottawa stormed back to edge the Wolves 4-3. Lakehead rebounded nicely on Saturday with a 6-2 win over the Gee Gees, led by freshman Luke Judsons three goals.
Brock played only one game last weekend, a 5-2 win at home over the Guelph Gryphons.
Freshmen Start Fast
All four Thunderwolves freshmen got on the scoring sheet during their first weekend in a Lakehead uniform. In addition to Judsons hat trick, Carson Dubchak and Jay Gilbert both notched markers in the third period of Saturdays game, and Mike MacDonald recorded an assist on the Wolves first goal of the year on Friday night.
Series History
Lakehead holds the all-time series lead over Brock with a record of 21-5-2 against the Badgers. Lakehead and Brock squared off four times last year, with all of the games being played late in the season. The Thunderwolves travelled to Brock on successive Fridays in late January and early February, losing the first contest 3-2, but winning the following weekend by a 4-2 margin. Lakehead then closed out the OUA regular season with a home sweep of Brock by downing the Badgers 4-2 on the Friday and 6-4 on the Saturday.
About the Badgers
Brock is a relatively young team. With only 2 seniors on the roster, the squad is almost entirely made up of underclassmen; 8 juniors, 7 sophomores and 7 freshmen. But the Badgers do return their top 3 scorers from last season juniors Thomas Stajan and Matt Abercrombie, as well as sophomore Sean Jones.
The Brock defence is anchored by a pair of bruisers in 63 junior Kevin Christmas and 66 sophomore Daniel Tanel. The Badgers are especially young in goal. Only sophomore Adrian Volpe has any previous OUA playing experience, after appearing in 5 contests for Brock last season.
The team is led by Head Coach Murray Nystrom, a Thunder Bay native now in his 15th season behind the Brock bench.
Scherbans Take
Thunderwolves Head Coach Joel Scherban knows that games against the Badgers are never easy. "After a tough series against Ottawa, we look forward to facing another strong team in Brock, Scherban said. Both Ottawa and Brock made it to the semi-final round of the playoffs last season, and playing difficult opponents will help us to improve as a team."