It will be a wild battle of the packs this weekend when the Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team welcomes the Saint Marys Huskies to the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario this Friday and Saturday night for a big two-game series.
In addition, the Wolves will head south along the Lake Superior coast to Duluth, Minnesota Sunday for a night game against the NCAA Div I University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs of the WCHA Conference. Sunday nights game at the DECC Arena in Duluth goes at 6:07 pm CST (7:07 pm EST) and may be heard by going to the UMD site at http://umdbulldogs.com/bulldogs-on-the-air.php at 6:07 PM CST. (7.07 pm EST)
Both home games vs. Saint Marys 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. Lakehead Sports Info Director Mike Aylward will be calling the game live with Bryan Schroeder handling the colour duties with the broadcasts beginning each night at 7:20 pm EST.
Lakehead Head Coach Don McKee said this will be an important weekend for his squad. This week's non-conference games against Saint Mary's have two major purposes; firstly, they will allow our coaching staff to make final decisions about our player roster, and secondly, they will give us an opportunity to fine tune the team prior to the conference opening games, Thanksgiving Weekend against Windsor. All players will see action this weekend except Jesse Pyatt; who is still rehabbing from his injuries. Saint Mary's is one of the top five teams in CIS Hockey and should prove to be a weekend of very entertaining hockey.
Saint Marys Head Coach Trevor Stienburg said his squad is looking forward to the weekends play. With most of our impact guys returning from a 20 win season, we are optimistic that we will be able to compete with anyone in the country. We added two defence and four forwards that should solidify our depth and give us a more physical game and give us more energy game in game out.
Head to Head:
Lakehead is 2-0 all-time vs. St. Marys and outscored the Huskies 10-6 in their previous two meetings. Lakehead is 0-2 all-time vs. UMD and were outscored 12-2 in those two games.
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
Coach McKee and his staff are still looking to make their final cuts and will use this tough three-games-in-three-days weekend to make their final decisions. The Wolves tried many different line combinations last weekend against Carleton; looking to give everybody a chance to show what they could do and to make the final roster for this season.
Netminders Chris Whitley and Kyle Moir both played well against the Ravens last weekend, and Whitley looked sharp in the OT shootout in which he stopped all six shooters he faced.
The Wolves will be looking for offense from players like Andrew Brown, Dan Speer, Mark Soares, and Brock Mcpherson as well as from new recruits Scott Dobben (who scored a nice goal against Carleton), Andy Hyvarinen (who also scored against Carleton), and Adam Sergerie.
Defensively, the Wolves will look to Jordan C. Smith, Pierre-Marc Guilbault, and Drew Kivell to anchor the backline and also look for contributions from newcomer Ryan Baird. Jordan B. Smith and freshman Kalvin Sagert played some solid hockey against the Ravens last weekend and the staff will be looking for more of the same from them.
Lakehead 2008-09 Results:
Sep. 27: Carleton 3 Lakehead 2
Sep. 26: Lakehead 3 Carleton 2 (OTS)
Saint Marys Huskies:
The Huskies are coming off a stellar season last year which saw them notch 20 wins and make it to the AUS Finals against UNB. However, the Huskies, hurt by the injury bug and short five starters, fell to the Varsity Reds in the final.
Assistant Coach Paddy Flynn will be guiding the Huskies during the trip to Thunder Bay while Head Coach Stienburg recovers from illness.
Gone from last years squad is All Canadian Dan Rudisuela who is now with the AHLs Toronto Marlies. However, the Huskies feature CIS Second Team All Canadian Marc Rancourt; who was second in the CIS in scoring last year with 14 goals and 37 assists.
The other danger man up front for AUS Rookie of the Year and AUS Second Team All Star Cody Thornton, who tallied 18 goals and 24 assists last season.
Defensively, the Huskies are anchored by CIS Second Team All Canadian Scott Hotham. Hotham was also an AUS First Team All Star. His brother Andrew is the other man on the blue line for Saint Marys; last year he led all AUS d-men in scoring and was named to the CIS All Rookie Team.
St. Marys N/C Scoring 2007-08:
#14 Cam Fergus G 4 A 3 Pts. 7 GP 4
#12 Garret Peters G 2 A 3 Pts. 5 GP - 4
#81 Marc Rancourt G 1 A 4 Pts. 5 GP - 4
#21 Kyle Doucet G 3 A 2 Pts. 5 GP - 3
#16 Andrew Hotham G 1 A 3 Pts. 4 GP - 4
#4 Dave MacDonald G 1 A 3 Pts. 4 GP - 4
#20 Justin Munden G 2 A 1 Pts. 3 GP - 4
#49 Colby Pridham G 1 A 1 Pts. 2 GP - 3
#19 Scott Hotham G 1 A 1 Pts. 2 GP - 4
#24 Tyler Hawes G 1 A 1 Pts. 2 GP - 4
#28 Chris Morehouse G 1 A 0 Pts. 1 GP - 4
#6 Justin Wallingford G 0 A 1 Pts. 1 GP - 4
#9 Cody Thornton G 1 A 0 Pts. 1 GP 1
Goalies Mins GA SH SAGP W L
#33 Corey Chipman 86:05 6 48 42 2 .51
#30 Jasen Awalt 93:55 5 35 30 2 1.5
#29 Brandon Verge 60 4 39 35 1 1
Saint Marys 2008-09 Results:
Sep. 28: Saint Mary's 7 Queen's 0
Sep. 27: St. FX 4 SMU 2
Sep. 20: UNB 4 SMU 1
Sep. 19: SMU 9 Dalhousie 7
UMD Bulldogs:
2007-08 Overall Record: 13-17-6 2007-08 WCHA Record (Place): 9-14-5 (8th)
This will be the Bulldogs first game of the season. The Bulldogs are coming off an 8th place finish in the 10-Team WCHA last season. They feature some top recruits such as Scott Kishell, Canadian Andrew Lamb and Jack Connolly.
Six members of this years squad are NHL draft choices; Kishell (Montreal), Alex Stalock (San Jose), Josh Meyers (LA KINGS), Matt Greer (Columbus), Jordan Fulton (Calgary), and Michael Gargen (Pittsburgh).
Other players to watch are Nick Greer and Thunder Bay native and freshman Travis Oleksuk. Traviss father Billy is a UMD Hockey Legend who played from 1978-82 and notched 190 points in 100 games for 11th place in all-time scoring for the Dogs. 39 Bulldogs have gone onto play in the NHL; with the most notable being future Hall of Famer Brett Hull and netminder Glenn Chico Resch. UMD grads from Thunder Bay who have gone onto the pros are Norm MacIver and Ron Busniuk.