The Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team will host the Saskatchewan Huskies for a two-game series this Friday and Saturday at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay. Lakehead enters the weekend with a 4-1-2 mark, and are coming off a 2-2 OT tie with Air Force, a 5-5 OT draw with NCAA No. 6 Colorado College, and a 7-1 loss to NCAA No. 1 Denver over the Thanksgiving weekend.
The Huskies sport a 1-1 conference record (6-2 overall) and are coming off a split of their two game regular season series vs. the Lethbridge Pronghorns last weekend. Saskatchewan has won two pre-season tourneys: their own September Showcase and the University of Alberta Golden Bears Brick Invitational which saw the Huskies defeat their arch-rivals, the Golden Bears.
Fridays game kicks off at 7:30 pm EST while Saturdays will be a rare afternoon game because the game will be televised by Thunder Bay Television-CTV at 2:00 pm EST. Saturdays game can be seen nationally on the Star Choice Satellite Network on Channel 314 and regionally in Northwestern Ontario on TBT-CTV Channel 4/Cable 6 as well as locally on Bell Express Vu Channel 222.
Head To Head:
This will be the third and fourth meetings between the two teams with Saskatchewan recording a hard-fought OT win in their first game last year and the teams battled to tough OT draw in the second with the Huskies outscoring the Wolves 9-8.
Oct. 15, 2004: Saskatchewan 5 Lakehead 4 (OT)
Oct. 16, 2004: Lakehead 4 Saskatchewan 4 (OT)
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said this series against one of the top teams in the CIS is just what his squad needs before the OUA regular season begins. The Huskies gave us more that we could handle last season during our non-conference games and
Coach Adolph always has his Huskies playing a sound puck game, lots of support on both sides of the puck, quick transition, hard hits, excellent powerplay and penalty kill; and, most of all in- your-face Western Style Hockey! It should be a great series!
Lakehead 05-06 Results:
Sep. 23 Lakehead 4 Manitoba 1
Sep. 24 Lakehead 6 Manitoba 4
Sep. 30 Lakehead 4 Saint Marys 2
Oct. 1 Lakehead 6 Saint Marys 2
Oct. 8 Denver 7 Lakehead 1
Oct. 9 Lakehead 5 Colorado College 5 (OT)
Oct. 10 Lakehead 2 Air Force 2 (OT)
The Colorado trip was costly to the Thunderwolvesasveteran netminder Grant McCune suffered a groin injury againstAir Force andcentre TobiasWhelaninjured his knee MCL in the same gameand may be out four to eight weeks. McCune has been stellar so far this season witha record of 3-0-1, a Save Percentage of .915, and a GAA of 3.58. Fellow netminder Chris Whitley will play against Saskatchewan andplayed well against Air Force where he was named second star and has a record of 1-1-1.
Jason Lange found his form in Colorado and was key in the teams tie with Colorado College (named First Star) and Air Force. Lange had two goals and two assists on the NCAA trip and has 4 goals and 4 assists so far this season. Linemate Peter Cava seems in mid-season form offensively, and leads the Wolves with 5 goals and 6 assists.
Joel Scherban (1 goal and 8 assists) and Jeff Richards (4 goals and 1 assist) are also putting up offensive numbers and Scherban is closing in on the All Time Lakehead scoring mark of 225 points held by Murray Smith of the Lakehead Norwesters (1966-70). Scherban (86 goals, 131 assists) is three behind Smiths assist mark of 134 and 11 behind Larry Zulianellos (1970-74) goal scoring mark of 97. Linemate Richards is also in the hunt for the goal scoring mark as he presently sits at 82 goals.
Erik Lodge is leading the defensive corps offensively with 2 goals and 6 assists. The defense is moving the puck out of the Wolves zone well early on this season. Matt Jacques (1 goal, 2 assists) and Mike Jacobsen (1 goal, 3 assists) will also be needed f