In eight seasons of OUA/CIS hockey; the Lakehead Thunderwolves Mens Hockey team has developed a variety of rivals and adversaries. In the early years there were the York Lions and in the past few seasons tough divisional rivalries have developed with the Waterloo Warriors and the Windsor Lancers. A blood feud has also come into being with the Laurier Golden Hawks over the past two seasons that only seems to get bigger each time the Wolves and the Hawks play. However, there has been one constant in the Lakehead Hockey universe. The biggest games and the biggest rival and the biggest dates that Lakehead players, staff, and fans circle on their calendars are when the Wolves do battle with the Western Mustangs.
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This weekend Lakehead heads to London, Ontario for a two-game set against their archrivals from Western and a Stangs vs. Wolves series always means an intense tough series. In the brutally tough OUA Far West Division; the stakes are even higher this year with every point being paramount.
Both teams are locked in a three-way tie for second in the OUA West with Waterloo; with all having 7 points and Windsor right behind. Laurier leads the division with 9 points. Lakehead has a 3-2-1 OUA mark (5-5-1 overall) and are coming off a home split with Laurier. Western is also 3-2-1 in OUA action (3-7-1 overall) and are coming off two exhibition losses to NCAA Div. I teams Cornell and Princeton.
Both games face off at 7:30 pm EST and can be heard live in Thunder Bay on Rock94 FM and online at www.rock94.com with Bryan Wyatt calling the action live. Western campus radio CHRW is also broadcasting the game live in the London area on 94.9 FM and online at http://chrwradio.com/listen/.
The Saturday Nov. 1st game at 7:30 pm EST between Lakehead and Western will be vidcast live and freeby Western Athletics. To watch; CLICK HERE.
Head to Head:
The Stangs are the team that Lakehead has played the most in eight seasons of OUA/CIS play and Western is the only OUA West team that Lakehead has a losing record against. Lakehead is 15-26-1 all time vs Western; 7-20-1 in the regular season but 8-6 in the playoffs. Western has outscored Lakehead 160 to 109 in their previous 42 games.
Interestingly, six games into the season, neither team has a scorer in the OUA Top 20; but it says here that will change as the season progresses.
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
Head Coach McKee was very happy that players like junior Mark Soares (1 goal, 2 assists), senior Scott Dobben (2 goals, 4 assists), senior Dan Speer (2 goals, 2 assists), and junior Brock McPherson (3 goals, 2 assists) are all starting to contribute offensively and seemed to find their scoring touch in the second game vs. Laurier. McPherson had a very strong weekend against Laurier, scoring three goals, and Speer played his best game of the year last Saturday. Dobben has shown consistency on the ice and also seems to be more and more confident as he adjusts to CIS hockey.
Sophomore Kris Hogg leads the Wolves in scoring (4 goals, 2 assists) and played a great all around game last Saturday vs. Laurier. Freshman Andy Hyvarinen (4 goals) was a factor offensively against the Hawks and his scoring will be needed this weekend against the Stangs.
Lakehead will look for offense and two-way play from fifth year senior captain Andrew Brown (2 assists) and assistant captain Tobias Whelan (1 goal, 2 assists). Freshman Arron Alphonso (1 goal, 4 assists) continues to impress and could be a factor this weekend.
Coach McKee has the luxury of using the week of practices to choose from other talented forwards to take down to London this weekend. Devin Welsh (1 goal) played his best game in a Lakehead jersey last Saturday against the Hawks and his line with fifth year seniors Richard Molenaar (1 assist) and Matt Maisonneuve was very effective. The Wolves can also count of strong play from fifth year seniors Brad Priestlay (1 goal, 1 assist) and Shandor Alphonso (1 goal).
Defensively, sophomore Ryan Baird played his best hockey of the year last weekend and looks to be more confident on the offensive end. The Wolves D-Corps as a unit played very well against Laurier; only allowing three regulation goals.
Lakehead will look to their big d-men like junior Jordan C. Smith (2 assists), fifth year senior Drew Kivell, sophomore Mitch Maunu to control the front of the net. Andy Zulyniak (2 assists) played well against Laurier on Saturday and Lakehead will need strong games from freshmen Bryan Wilson and Kalvin Sagert.
Fifth year senior goalie Chris Whitley (2-1; GAA 3.00, SV% .890) rebounded from perhaps his worst career regular season loss (7-5 to Waterloo two weeks ago) to play a fantastic game in last Saturdays 6-1 win over Laurier. Kyle Moir (1-1-1; GAA 1.63; SV% .940) also played a very good game in the 3-2 OTS loss to the Hawks. His GAA and SV% are among the best in the CIS.
Western Mustangs:
Head Coach Clarke Singer enters his 10th season behind the bench with Western. The Stangs lost a lot of talented players to graduation like goal scorer Kevin Richardson, forwards Ryan Hare and Jesse Boucher, faceoff specialist Kyle Piwowarczyk, and defencemen Matt Manias and Marcus Smith.
This season sees the Stangs adding 13 new players to their lineup but Western always bring in top recruits and this year is no different. New to the squad are d-men Jason Swit (1 goal), Brock Turner, Geoff Killing (1 goal, 1 assist; great hockey name!), and Chris Corbeil, forwards Andrew Self (brother of former Lakehead player Mike Self), Kevin Baker (2 goals and 2 assists), Yashar Farmanara (2 assists), Mike Sharp, Jason Furlong (3 goals, 1 assist), Joe McCann (3 assists), Keaton Turkiewicz (3 assists), and Aaron Snow (2 goals, 1 assist; also a good hockey name!), and goalie Chris Abbey.
However the Wolves will see many familiar and dangerous faces on the Stangs led by senior Sal Peralta (3 goals, 2 assists); a very talented two-way player who can supply a lot of offense.
Other returning forwards to watch are Luc Martin (1 assist), Kyle Lamb (2 goals, 1 assist), Jeff Martens (1 goal, 1 assist), Jason Ertl, Patrick Ouellet, Matt Raymond and centre Sean Courtney (1 goal). Senior Oulette is in good early season form with four assists in six games.
Defenensively the Stangs are led by Chris Petrow (2 assists), Adam Nemeth (1 goal, 1 assist), and Ryan Martinelli and these three formidable defenders play hardnosed hockey. Martinellis leads the Stangs D-men with a goal and 3 assists. Freshmen Swit, Corbeil, and Killing have also chipped in offensively thus far in the season.
The goaltending tandem of Brad Topping (2-1, GAA 2.75, SV% .900) and Keyvan Hunt (1-2; GAA 4.42; SV% .880) are among the best in the CIS and will challenge the Wolves shooters to put the puck past them.
For the full preview; CLICK HERE.