Lakehead Captain Joel Scherban put his Lakehead mens hockey team on his shoulders and rallied his troops for a furious third period comeback as the Wolves came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the York Lions 4-3 Wednesday night at the Beatrice Ice Gardens on the York campus in Toronto. Lakehead was down 2-0 and then 3-1 heading into the third but scored three unanswered goals in the final stanza to secure the win. Lakehead outshot York 26-23 on the night. The win gives Lakehead a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three OUA preliminary round series with Game Two Friday night at 7:30 pm the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay.
Scherban notched two goals for Lakehead while singles came from Dan Speer and Mark Robinson while Marcus Smith, Phil Knapp, and Blair Grennier tallied for the Lions. Speer and Robinson also added an assist apiece while Tobias Whelan played a great all around game for the Wolves and notched two helpers. Lakehead played the game without offensive game-breaker Jeff Richards and star defenseman Erik Lodge in addition to key players Mike Wehrstedt and Steve Rawski.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau was proud of his team. It was our biggest comeback of the year and does a lot to boost our confidence and gives us some momentum heading home. However, this series is far from over as York is a very dangerous team.
York jumped out to an early lead at 8:31 of the first on Smiths goal set up by Matt Passfield and Jon Hedberg. The Lions made it 2-0 at 13:42 when Knapp converted a good pass from Alex Ennafatti. Lakehead got within one at 15:42 when Dan Speer beat York netminder with a one-timer; after being set up nicely by Tobias Whelan with the other assist going to Mark Robinson.
York scored the only goal of the second when Blair Grennier beat Lakehead netminder Grant McCune at 6:56 on the powerplay. Scherban began his heroics very early in the third when he intercepted a York pass after the opening faceoff and went in alone to beat Druce unassisted at the seven second mark. The Wolves kept up the pressure and were rewarded at 8:15 when Scherban cut in front of the goal and scored his second; assisted by nice work by Craig Priestlay. Mark Robinson gave Lakehead the lead soon after at 10:19 after being set up nicely by Whelan and Speer.
York pulled goalie Druce with just over a minute left and began a furious attack on the Lakehead goal and the Wolves McCune made a fantastic save with 40 seconds left to rob Yorks Matt Passfield and save the win for Lakehead.
Friday and Saturdays games will be videowebcast live from Fort William Gardens in partnership with News-cast.com and ordering info is available at the Lakehead hockey site; www.thunderwolveshockey.com. Pre-game begins Friday at approx. 7:20 pm EST.