The Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team are back home this Friday and Saturday night for a two-game OUA regular season series against OUA Far West Division rivals Laurier Golden Hawks at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Both home games vs. Laurier will be videowebcast live on a pay-per-view basis with ordering information available at http://events.news-cast.com/events/Lakehead
Viewers will need hi speed internet and Windows Media Player to watch the broadcasts.
Rock94 FM Sports Director Bryan Wyatt will be calling the play by play while Argus Sports Editor Mike St. Jean will be handling the pre-game, colour, and intermission duties with the broadcasts beginning each night at 7:20 pm EST.
Lakehead enters the weekend 2-2 in OUA play and are 4-4 overall; coming off an away split against the Waterloo Warriors. The Wolves are in fourth place in the tightly contested OUA Far West.
Laurer is 3-0-0-1 in OUA play, and are first in the OUA Far West. They are coming off an OT loss to Western and an OT shootout win over Windsor.
Lakehead Head Coach Don McKee said he expects this series will be another OUA Far West knock-down battle. Laurier is one of the only teams in the OUA that has achieved at least a point in every game they have played and our first in our division; which I believe is going to be an unbelievably tight division. I think this series will be like our series against Waterloo and Windsor; physical tough battles. I think that the team that outworks the other will win the games. Laurier has premier players like Mark and Craig Voakes; how Mark goes the Hawks usually follow. They have depth, solid netminding, and are a very offensive minded team that likes to gamble and that makes them very explosive.
Laurier Head Coach Kelly Nobes said the series will be fast and exciting. We are looking forward to coming to Thunder Bay to renew our rivalry with the Thunderwolves. We have added four D-Men who skate well and move the puck well and we understand that Lakehead has added some good recruits to their very strong lineup from last year. We expect two fast paced, high tempo games.
DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE LAKEHEAD HOCKEY ONLINE MEDIA GUIDE AT WWW.THUNDERWOLVES.CA ON THE TOP RIGHT OF THE MAIN PAGE AND CLICK ON THE HOCKEY MEDIA GUIDE WOLFHEAD LOGO.
Head to Head:
Lakehead is 17-11 all time vs. Laurier; 11-6 in regular season play, 2-1 in non-conference play, and 4-4 in the playoffs. Lakehead outscored Laurier 106-84 in those 28 games. Last season; the Wolves won three of four games during the regular season; but all were tight games. Lakehead eliminated Laurier in the OUA West Semif-Finals 2-1 in a close series last season in the playoffs.
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
In the dogfight that is the OUA Far West Division, the Thunderwolves now know that every game is a battle and there are no easy wins. The Wolves are coming off a strange series against Waterloo that saw them allow 7 goals in Fridays wild 7-5 loss but then clamp down for a hard fought 2-1 win on Saturday night. The 7 goals allowed last Friday were the most in a regular season game since Laurier scored nine as they beat the Wolves 9-3 on January 26th, 2007; during the 06-07 season.
The Wolves will need to work on what went right in Saturdays win as they try to contain Lauriers dangerous offense. Netminder Kyle Moir (1-1, GAA 1.51, SV% .950) played an excellent game in Saturdays win while Chris Whitley (1-1, GAA 4.00, SV% .830) will look to rebound from Fridays loss; his first in two seasons of regular season play.
The Lakehead defense will have to play like they did in last Saturdays Waterloo victory; and the Wolves will look to defensive leadership from Jordan C. Smith, Drew Kivell, Mitch Maunu, and Pierre-Marc Guilbault (2 assists). Ryan Baird (2 assists) had a strong game last Saturday against Waterloo and will look to build on that while Coach McKee will be looking for solid play from freshmen Kalvin Sagert (1 goal, 2 assists) and Bryan Wilson.
Up front; freshman Andy Hyvarinen has show that his goal scoring from the Junior A ranks translates well at the CIS level as he has four goals to lead the Wolves in OUA scoring. Kris Hogg is right behind with 3 goals and an assist and the sophomore sniper looks to continue his scoring ways. Senior Scott Dobben is playing well and has a goal and 3 assists.
Assistant captain Tobias Whelan (1 goal, 2 assists) played very well against the Warriors and fans hope that this trend will continue this weekend. Freshman Arron Alphonso has also started well and has a goal and 2 assists.
The Wolves will need offense and two-way play from veterans such as captain Andrew Brown (2 assists), Shandor Alphonso (1 goal), Matt Maisonneuve (1 assist), Brad Priestlay (1 goal, 1 assist), and Richard Molenaar.
The Wolves need Dan Speer (1 goal, 1 assist), Mark Soares (1 assist), and Brock McPherson (1 assist) to pick up their two-way play; whether as a line or in different lines. As a line; the three led the OUA in scoring last season and the Wolves need these talented players to catch fire and this weekend would be a great time for them to rekindle some of last years magic.
Lakehead 08-09 Results:
Sat Oct 18 Lakehead 2 Waterloo 1
Fri Oct 17 Waterloo 7 Lakehead 5
Sat Oct 11 Lakehead 6 Windsor 1
Fri Oct 10 Windsor 3 Lakehead 1
Sun Oct 5 MN-Duluth 6 Lakehead 0 EX
Sat Oct 4 Saint Mary's 2 Lakehead 0 NC
Fri Oct 3 Lakehead 3 Saint Mary's 1 NC
Sat Sep 27 Carleton 3 Lakehead 2 NC
Fri Sep 26 Lakehead 3 Carleton 2 NC PPD Sat SO
Laurier Golden Hawks:
2007-08 regular season record: 16-9-3 2007-08 regular season standings: 4th OUA Far West
2007-08 playoff record: 3-3
2007-08 playoff finish: Lost in OUA Quarter-Final to Lakehead
The fast and dangerous Haws have a wide variety of skilled players that will pose a threat to the Wolves this weekend.
Up front, Laurier has two of the best players in the OUA; brothers Mark and Craig Voakes. Sophomore Craig was CIS and OUA Rookie of The Year last season and led the CIS in regular season goal scoring with 23. Craig is coming off an injury and listed as day-to-day for the Lakehead series. Mark Voakes has 8 assists and is 16th in CIS and 6th in OUA scoring.
Other forwards to watch are Nick Vergeer (2 goals, 4 assists; 13th OUA scoring) and the smooth skating Jean-Michel Rizk. Rizk has 6 goals and 5 assists and is second in OUA and CIS scoring. Big Luke Girard (3 goals, 3 assist; 18th OUA) and really big Matt Maccrone (6 8) are also players the Wolves will have to guard against.
Laurier lost some top players from last years squad such as Matt Grennier, Rob Dmytruk, and Riley Moher but Coach Nobes has brought in talented recruits Ryan Bernardi, Garrett Sinfield, Phillip Magistrale, and Jordan Bonneville.
Defensively, Chad Kennedy anchors the Hawks blueliners along with Adam Maccarone while star netminder Jeff MacDougald (3-0; GAA 2.78, SV% .900) is one of the best in the OUA and can win games for the Hawks on any given night. Mike Thomson is his able backup.
Laurier 08-09 Results:
Sat Oct 18 Western 4 Laurier 3 OT
Fri Oct 17 Laurier 6 Windsor 5 OT SO
Sat Oct 11 Laurier 5 Waterloo 3
Thu Oct 9 Laurier 5 Western 2
Sat Oct 4 Bowling Green 5 Laurier 1 EX
Sat Sep 27 Laurier 6 Ottawa 1 NC
Fri Sep 26 Laurier 5 McGill 4 NC
Thu Sep 18 Laurier 6 Guelph 0 NC