The Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team welcomes the Windsor Lancers to the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay this Friday and Saturday for a crucial OUA Far West Division series. Lakehead enters the weekend with a 1-1 OUA record (3-4 overall) after splitting their road series against Waterloo last weekend; while Windsor is also 1-1 (1-4 overall) after splitting their home and away series with the Western Mustangs. The OUA Far West Division is a dogfight early in the season with each team sitting with 1-1 records.
Games time both nights is 7:30 pm EST and the games will be videowebcast live with ordering information available at www.thunderwolveshockey.com with the pre-game starting at about 7:25 pm.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said the divisional series will be a battle. We are in one of toughest divisions in the CIS and all our inter-divisional games are extremely important. We all remember how Vern (Windsor Coach Stenlund) and the Lancers swept us at home last season, we will have to be ready to compete throughout the weekend to gain points. The Lancers are coming off a very impressive win over the Mustangs; they are the real deal and will make you look bad if you are not ready to play. Speciality teams, discipline, and goaltending will be crucial for both teams.
Windsor Head Coach Vern Stenlund, a Thunder Bay native, said his team always looks forward to playing the Wolves at the Gardens. We opened with Western with a home and home series and now we go from the frying pan into the fire with two at Lakehead! Pete (Belliveau) always does a great job of getting his team ramped up and ready to play, so this will be a very difficult test for our program. But our kids are looking forward to this challenge and we will be ready when the puck drops. One thing I know to be true; playing against Lakehead at the Fort William Gardens is always a thrill for our players, and incidentally, a thrill for their head coach as well!
Head To Head:
The Thunderwolves have an 18-5-1 record against Windsor; 14-5-1 in the regular season and 4-0 in the playoffs. However, last year the teams split their four regular season meetings; with both teams sweeping on the road.
The Wolves have outscored the Lancers 112 to 54 in their 24 previous meetings.
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
Lakehead seems to have found a very potent first line made up of senior captain Jeff Richards (1 goal, 2 assists OUA; 6 goals, 5 assists overall), junior Tobias Whelan (2 goals, 3 assists OUA; 4 goals, 5 assists overall), and freshman Mark Soares (2 goals, 2 assists OUA and overall). In last weeks 5-4 win over Waterloo, the line accounted for 11 points; including a phenomenal five point game by Whelan. Soares also scored Lakeheads only goal in the 2-1 loss to Waterloo.
However, the rest of the Lakehead forwards have to get rolling offensively against the disciplined Lancers. Key this weekend will be the play of juniors Mike Wehrstedt and Brad Priestlay, sophomore Shandor Alphonso as well as the two-way play of Mark Robinson. The Wolves will also look for scoring from junior Andrew Brown (3 assists overall) and sophomore Dan Speer (1 goal OUA; 2 goals overall).
Newcomers Matt Maissoneuve, Richard Molenaar, Donnie Mitchell, Ryan Maunu, and Nathan Breukelman have played well so far this season and this will be their first taste of regular season action in front of the noisy crowd at the Fort William Gardens.
Lakeheads defense has been playing well but penalties have hurt them. The Wolves will need some offense as well from blueliners Matt Jacques (1 goal, 3 assists overall), Drew Kivell, Mike Self, Steve Rawski, Dan Rogers, and Jarryd Brend.
Goaltender Chris Whitely was very solid against Waterloo last week and will need to be sharp against the Lancers.
Lakehead 06-07 Results: