The Lakehead Thunderwolves host theNo. 6Waterloo Warriors in a crucial two-game OUA Far West Division series at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Warriors are first in the OUA Far West with a 15-2-1 record (18-6-1 overall) and 31 points; best in the whole OUA. Lakehead is second with an 11-4-2-1 OUA mark (14-11-2-1) and 25 points.
The Wolves are coming off away split with the resurgent Windsor Lancers but did come away with three points as Lakeheads loss was in OT. Waterloo is coming off an impressive home and away sweep of the Western Mustangs who are right behind Lakehead in the Far West Division with 22 points.
Lakehead and Waterloo are tied for second in the CIS with 4.6 goals per game. Lakehead is tied for ninth in goals allowed at 3.2 per game while Waterloo is second at 2.4 per game.
Both games will be videowebcast live with ordering information available at www.thunderwolveshockey.com by clicking on the Broadcast section at the bottom of the main page. Alan Wickware will be calling all the action live.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said Lakehead fans should expect an exciting series. Our fans will get to see one of the the OUAs top teams in the Waterloo Warriors. We were able to split with them in October, but they are solid from goaltender to defense to forwards. They play a solid team game and do not beat themselves. They are quite pumped as they swept UWO this weekend. We will be ready for them and we are looking to see how we measure up at this point in the season. Goaltending and discipline will be key this weekend.
Head To Head:
The Thunderwolves are 16-6-2 against Waterloo; 14-6-2 in regular season action and 2-0 in playoff action. Lakehead has outscored Waterloo 93-67 in those games. The two teams split their two-game series earlier this season in Waterloo.
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
The Wolves let a 3-1 third period lead slip in their Friday OT loss to Windsor last weekend but then showed some grit by coming back from a 3-1 deficit to win 5-3 in the Saturday game. Mark Soares picked up three goals last weekend and Dan Speer also played very well. Steve Rawski also continued his strong offense in Windsor picking up a pair of assists.
The Wolves will need some offense and strong two-way hockey from the whole team to be successful against the powerful Warriors and will need strong goaltending from Chris Whitley. Lakehead Captain Jeff Richards and leading scorer Tobias Whelan will need to supply some offensive punch and backchecking this weekend as well.
Whelan is tied for third in the CIS and OUA with 31 points on 12 goals and 21 assists. Soares is fifth in OUA scoring and eighth in the CIS with 26 points on 15 goals and 11 assists.
Richards has a lower-body injury so is listed as day-to-day and hopefully will be in the lineup. Andrew Brown is also listed at day-to-day with an unspecified injury.
Lakeheads defense will have to play very solidly in front of Whitley and work on reducing good scoring opportunities and stopping the Warriors potent offense. It will be interesting to see how newcomers Jordan Smith and Andy Zulyniak fare as they find their game legs with the Wolves.
Lakehead 06-07 Results:
Sat Jan 6 Lakehead 5 Windsor 3
Fri Jan 5 Windsor 5 Lakehead 4 OL SO
Wed Dec 27 Lakehead 7 Calgary 6 NC OT
Thu Dec 28 Toronto 6 Lakehead 4 NC
Fri Dec 29 Laurier 4 Lakehead 3 NC
Sat Dec 2 Lakehead 3 McGill 2
Fri Dec 1 McGill 3 Lakehead 3 OT TIE
Sat Nov 25 UQTR 4 Lakehead 2
Fri Nov 24 UQTR 8 Lakehead 5
Sat Nov 18 Lakehead 6 Queen's 2
Fri Nov 17 Lakehead 6 Queen's 2
Sat Nov 11 Lakehead 8 Ryerson 3
Fri Nov 10 Lakehead 8 Ryerson 3
Sun Nov 5 Lakehead 5 Guelph 5 OT TIE
Sat Nov 4 Lakehead 5 Guelph 2
Sat Oct 28 Brock 3 Lakehead 0
Fri Oct 27 Lak