The Lakehead Thunderwolves will host the No.3 Laurier Golden Hawks Wednesday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay in Game #1 of their OUA quarterfinal playoff series. Lakehead enters the Series with a 15-10-3-2 OUA record (18-17-3-2 overall) while the Hawks had the best record in the OUA at 22-5-1 (25-11-1 overall). Wednesdays game faces off at 7:30 pm EST in Thunder Bay and Game 2 will be in Waterloo on Saturday night at 7:30 pm EST and Game 3, if necessary, will go Sunday at 2:00 pm in Waterloo.
Lakehead is coming off a hard fought first round playoff series against York which saw the Wolves win 2-0 on a 3-2 quadruple overtime win and a 4-3 double overtime win. Laurier had the first round bye. The Thunderwolves will be putting their Fort William Gardens playoff home winning streak on the line Wednesday. Lakehead is 14-0 at the Gardens in six seasons of OUA postseason play.
Wednesday's game will be videowebcast live with ordering information available at www.thunderwolveshockey.com in the Webcasts and Broadcasting Section found at the bottom of the main page. Lakehead Thunderwolves Sports Information Director and Broadcast Manager Mike Aylward will bedoing the pre-game and play by play and Paul Wehrstedt will be providing the colour. The game(s) in Waterloo can be heard live on 580 CKPR in Thunder Bay and online at www.ckpr.com with Bryan Wyatt calling all the action and Jonas Gilbart hosting the pre-game andintermission show.
Lakehead Assistant Coach Darrin Nicholas said his squad knows they are up against a formidable opponent. We know were playing a very deep, high-powered, and dangerous team who have beaten us three times in our own rink this season. Were very happy with how we played against York in the first round and we hope to continue that against the Hawks. I think winning the first game at home could be key to our success in this series.
Head to Head:
Lakehead is 11-7 against Laurier all time; 7-5 in OUA regular season games, 2-1 in non-conference games, and 2-1 in playoff games. The Wolves have outscored the Hawks 76-56 in those 18 previous games. However, Laurier defeated Lakehead 4-3 this season at the Wolves T Bay Tel Varsity Cup on Dec. 29th; and swept Lakehead at the Fort William Gardens in regular season action in January with 9-3 and 6-5 (OT) wins.
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
There were stories galore in Lakeheads playoff battle with the York Lions. One was the excellent play of the forward line of Mike Wehrstedt (2 goals, 1 assist playoffs), Brock McPherson (3 assists playoffs), and Andrew Brown (2 goals, 1 assist); with Wehrstedt notching both OT game-winning goals. Another was the excellent team defense that supported the strong goaltending of netminder Chris Whitley. The Wolves had come into the York series letting in a lot of goals and cut that down with fine defense.
Another story was that the Wolves won without their injured captain, Jeff Richards, who had 17 goals and 14 assists; tied for second in regular season team scoring while playing only 16 games. Richards injury is improving and he is listed as day-to-day to play on Wednesday.
Lakehead will need scoring from smooth playmaker Tobias Whelan and freshman star Mark Soares. Whelan (16 goals, 25 assists) tied for 3rd in OUA and 6th in CIS scoring while Soares notched 16 goals and 15 assists and tied with Richards in regular season scoring. Soares has a goal and an assist in the playoffs. Dan Speer (1 goal, 1 assist playoffs) also played very well against York and his continued strong play will be key against Laurier.
The Wolves will need offense and two-way play from forwards Brad Priestlay, Richard Molenaar, and Mark Robinson, Shandor Alphonso, and Matt Maissoneuve to contain the powerful Hawks.
As a team, the Wolves will need<