The Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team is back home this weekend and will host the Queens Golden Gaels this Friday and Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay.
Lakehead enters the weekend with a 7-2-1 OUA record (9-5-1 overall)) after sweeping Ryerson away last weekend. Lakehead remains in a tied battle with Waterloo for first place in the OUA Far West Division with the Western Mustangs close behind.
Queens is 1-6-3 in conference play, is second in the OUA Mid East Division, and has a 3-7-5 overall mark. The Gaels are coming off a loss to Waterloo and a hard fought tie with Western last weekend.
Game time both nights is 7:30 pm EST and both games be watched live on Lakehead pay per view video webcast with ordering info available at www.thunderwolveshockey.com. Argus Campus newspaper Sports Editor Alan Wickware will be calling the play by play and Lakehead Sports Information Guy Mike Aylward will handle the pre-game and colour commentary.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said Queens will be a tough adversary. Our series vs Queens is a little unknown as we have not played them in two years, but they have a solid team as I look at their results this season. We will have to be ready to play intense hockey for 3 periods each night in order to get some positive results."
Queens Head Coach Brett Gibson said his young squad is looking forward to the challenge of playing the Wolves. I look forward to this weekends series with the Thunderwolves and view it as a measuring point to where we match up as a team to one of the best in the league. We are in a rebuilding year as a program with eight first year
players and can only improve over tough games; like the ones we will encounter this coming weekend.
Head To Head:
The Thunderwolves are 4-0 against Queens in five plus seasons, all regular season games, and have outscored the Golden Gaels 31-5 in those previous four meetings.
Lakehead is third in the CIS in goals for at 4.9 per game while Queens is averaging 3.4; tied for 13th. Lakehead is tied for 8th in the CIS in goals allowed with 2.9 per game while Queens is tied for 14th at 4.0 per game.
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
One of the main keys to the success of the Wolves so far this season has been the balanced attack with scoring coming from throughout the roster.
Lakehead captain Jeff Richards (3 goals, 4 assists) made a strong return to the lineup with four points last weekend against Ryerson and Tobias Whelan (six points against Ryerson) is still on fire offensively and his 21 points (8 goals, 13 assists) leads the OUA and puts him in second in the CIS.
Senior Mike Wehrstedt (6 goals, 6 assists; tied for 8th OUA) put up five points against Waterloo and if he has caught fire; that too is a good sign for the Wolves. Speedy freshman Mark Soares (5 goals, 6 assists; tied for 9th OUA) picked up three goals and two assists against the Rams and if he continues to score; chances are that much better for Lakehead success against Queens.
Senior Mark Robinson (4 goals, 4 assists) continues to play well and junior Brad Priestlay (2 goals, 2 assists) is also playing strong hockey.
Junior forwards Matt Maissoneuve (2 goals, 2 assists) and Richard Molenaar (2 goals, 5 assists) continue to impress; not only with their fine penalty kill play but also with their strong offensive play.
Sophomores Dan Speer (2 goals, 7 assists) and Shandor Alphonso (2 goals, 4 assists) as well as freshman Nathan Breukelman (2 goals, 2 assists) will also need to make contributions to the Lakehead attack. Alphonso looked good against Ryerson and Breukelman picked up a goal against the Rams.
Freshmen Ryan Maunu, and Donnie Mitchell will look to contribute this weekend as well. Maunu played well against Ryerson while Mitchell is questio