The Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team turned in their best home performance of the regular season to defeat the Guelph Gryphons 7-1 Friday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay. It was a total team effort and the Wolves were led by Brad Priestlay who scored two highlight reel goals while Jason Lange, Tobias Whelan, Craig Priestlay, Joel Scherban, and Erik Lodge added singles. Lange, Whelan, and Lodge each added an assist while Andrew Brown, Dan Speer, Murray Magill had two helpers apiece. Jesse Pyatt replied for the Gryphons.
The Thunderwolves are now 11-7-2 in OUA play (15-13-4 overall) while Guelph is 5-12-3 in conference play and 9-18-4 overall. Lakehead outshot Guelph 54-23 on the night before 2940 fans. Guelph netminder Ken Ritson again made a lot of great saves and the Gryphons missed on a few good scoring chances but it was the Wolves who were dominant for most of the game.
Lakehead jumped out to a quick lead at 3:33 of the first when Lange converted a fine pass from Andrew Brown and beat Ritson 5-hole. The other assist went to Mark Robinson. Whelan made it 2-0 at 5:35 when he and Dan Speer played tic-tac-toe with the puck before Whelan beat a sprawling Ritson. Brad Priestlay added to the lead at 17:32 on the powerplay when he fired a rocket one-timer from the point that went in off the crossbar, set up neatly by Lodge. Lakehead outshot Guelph 19-8 in the first.
Guelphs Pyatt scored a nice goal at 2:16 of the second on the powerplay, set up by Thomas Laplante. But Brad Priestlay made it 4-1 Wolves at 13:00 when he scored the goal of the game. Joel Scherban flipped a cross ice pass over a Guelph d-mans stick to Priestlay in the left circle and Priestlay timed a perfect one-timer that again beat Ritson. The other assist went to Mike Self. The Wolves outshot the Gryphons 19-7 in the second.
Scherban made it 5-1 at 2:24 of the third when he connected from the slot after a great pass from Magill. The other assist went to Speer. Lodge connected on the powerplay at 9:19 when he fired a fluttering shot from the point that fooled a screened Ritson with assists going to Brown and Whelan. Craig Priestlay closed out the scoring when he scored a lovely goal at 14:07. Hugo Lehoux hit him with a long pass that sprung Priestlay on the breakaway and the Wolves forward dropped Ritson with a deke and then backhanded it over the downed netminder. The other assist went to Magill. Lakehead outshot Guelph 16-8 in the third.
The Molsons Three Stars, as chosen by Reuben Villagracia of the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal, were:
1)Lakehead: Brad Priestlay
2)Lakehead: Joel Scherban
3)Lakehead: Erik Lodge
Lakehead travels to St. Catherines next weekend for two games vs. the Brock Badgers and both games can be heard live in Thunder Bay on 580 CKPR AM and online at www.ckpr.com with Bryan Wyatt calling the play by play.