It will be a very big weekend for the Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team as they head to Kingston, Ontario to challenge the RMC Paladins. The Thunderwolves are 5-3 in OUA play (9-6-2 overall) and are in a continuing dogfight for first in the OUA Far West Division with Waterloo, Western, and Windsor. The Cadets of RMC are off to a great start and are 4-3-2 in conference play (6-5-2 overall); good for first place in the OUA Mid East Division. Both games can be heard live at 7:30 pm EST on 580 CKPR AM radio in Thunder Bay and around the world online at www.ckpr.com with Bryan Wyatt calling all the action.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau knows that this will be a war in RMCs home rink. RMC are having a banner year and are leading the Mid East Division at the moment; these will be two very tough games as Coach Nobes has his team playing good intense playoff hockey.
RMC Head Coach Kelly Nobes said his squad is ready for a battle. Were looking forward to having Lakehead here in Kingston and this will be the first time weve hosted them since the 2001 season. We know they had a big weekend against York so weve been working hard and preparing and well throw everything weve got at them.
Head to Head:
Lakehead is 4-0 against RMC in four plus seasons of competition. The Thunderwolves have outscored the Paladins 28-9 in those four games. The Thunderwolves are averaging 3.4 goals for per game compared to the Paladins 2.9. Lakehead is allowing 2.4 goals per game while RMC is allowing 3.0.
Lakehead OUA Results:
Sat Nov 12 Lakehead 5 York 3
Fri Nov 11 Lakehead 6 York 1
Sat Nov 5 Lakehead 3 Laurier 0
Fri Nov 4 Laurier 5 Lakehead 2
Sat Oct 29 Lakehead 3 Windsor 1
Fri Oct 28 Lakehead 3 Windsor 2
Sat Oct 22 Windsor 2 Lakehead 1
Fri Oct 21 Windsor 5 Lakehead 4
The great story for the Thunderwolves since the first away series against Windsor had been the inspired play of the line of Mike Wehrstedt, Mark Robinson, and Brad Priestlay. Now the story of the Thunderwolves is the injury bug. Priestlay was injuredinlast Friday's game against Yorkbut freshman Shandor Alphonso stepped inSaturday and the line never missed a beat. Junior Wehrstedt was back to the form he displayed as a freshman and had notched four goals and four assists in OUA play and was the hero in last Saturdays win.
Unfortunately, the injury bug has hit him as well as he suffered a lower body injury during the second York game and will be out for the foreseeable future. Senior Robinson (4 goals, 1 assist) picked up the hat trick in Lakeheads win against York on Saturday. Most importantly is that this line was also very strong defensively and Robinson and Wehrstedt were seeing time on both the power play and were incredible on the penalty kill. Thursday night at practise, d-man Kris Calloway pulled a muscle and will also be out this weekend. In addition, goaltender Grant McCune suffered an injury in practise this week and will also be out, so backup Rob Cundari will be making the trip to Kingston.
Excellent power forward Andrew Brown will also not play this weekend due to the tragic passing of a close personal friend in his hometown of Belleville. Brown has returned home for services for his friend. Lakehead Athletics and Lakehead Hockey would like to extend their deepest sympathies and supportto Andrew and his friends during this very sad time.
So, Mike Wehrstedt, Brad Priestlay, Jeff Whitfield, Tobias Whelan, Grant McCune, Kris Callaway, and Andrew Brownwill not be playing this weekend.
Coach Belliveau will have some creative line juggling to do to find the right combinations with his reduced number of forwards. Great news for the Thunderwolves is Jeff Richards (4 goals, 5 assists in 5 games) seems to be in fine offensive form. He had 2 goals and 3 assists in