The Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team welcome the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League to the Fort William Gardens Friday, Sep. 29th and Sat. Sep. 30th, for a two-game series. Both games are set to start at 7:30 pm EST.
The Moose are the affiliate of the NHLs Vancouver Canucks and last season placed third in the AHLs North Divison and went to the second round of the playoffs before falling to Grand Rapids in a hard fought seven game series.
The Thunderwolves are coming off a home series split last weekend against the Manitoba Bisons and have a 1-1 record while these two games will be the only preseason games for the Moose and will be, in effect, their mini-tryout camp for some prospects. So, it looks to be an exciting series as the Wolves want to show what they can do against pro opposition while the Moose prospects are fighting for spots on the team.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said the Moose will pose quite a test for his squad. This will be very challenging series as we are playing a solid pro AHL team. They will force our players to play a very good positional game and execute our system to perfection. This series will only make us better and it will force us to play a solid team game. We are all looking forward to the challenge facing us.
Manitoba Head Coach Scott Arniel said the Moose are looking forward to the series. The opportunity to play a pair of games against Lakehead University this weekend is a good one for us as an organization. It allows us to evaluate our players in real-game action, and we know it will come against a quality opponent. The Thunderwolves are one of the countrys top university programs, so we know our players will have to ready if they want to show our coaching staff something in an attempt to make our hockey team this year.
Both games will be videowebcast live on a pay per view basis with ordering information available on this site by clicking on the Broadcasting section.
Head To Head:
Although the Moose have played in Thunder Bay before; this series will mark the first time that they will face off against the Thunderwolves and the first time the Wolves have played a professional team.
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
The Wolves showed some positives against the Manitoba Bisons last weekend. Offensively, captain Jeff Richards shone in both games; picking up 3 goals and 2 assists on the weekend and undressed almost every Bisons defenseman with some pretty inside/outside moves. Tobias Whelan also looked very good last weekend and was connecting very well with line-mate Dan Speer in Fridays game until Speer was ejected from the game.
Walk on forward Nathan Breukelman also shone; controlling the puck well and showing great on-ice vision and notching two assists in the Saturday game. Fellow walk-ons Donnie Mitchell and Ryan Maunu also proved they can play CIS hockey and their speed and scoring should be welcome additions to the Wolves roster this weekend.
The Wolves will look to strong two-way play from forward Mike Wehrstedt, Mark Robinson, Andrew Brown and Brad Priestlay this weekend as well as from newcomers Mathieu Maissoneuve, Richard Molenaar, Mark Soares, Matt Dyck, Donnie Mitchell, and Ryan Maunu.
Defenseman Mike Self played some solid hockey against the Bisons and made the defensive play of the game in the Sunday match that saved the games for the Wolves. D-men such as Matt Jacques and freshman Jarryd Brend picked up their play in the second game against the Bisons and will need to be sharp against the Moose.
New goaltender Matti Korhonen showed he could play at the CIS level; notching a win in his first start last Saturday; which is great news for the Wolves goaltending trio of Chris Whitley, Matt Iorianni, and Korhonen.
Lakehead 06-07 Results:
Sep. 22: Manitoba Bisons 5 Lakehead 2
Sep. 23: Lakehead 6<