The Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team head to London, Ontario this weekend to take on the Western Mustangs in a crucial two-game OUA Far West Division series. Lakehead is 12-5-2-1 (15-12-2-1 overall) and are in second in the division and sit just one point above the Mustangs (11-5-2-2 OUA; 13-7-2-2 overall).
Saturdays game goes at 7:00 pm EST and Sundays at 2:00 pm EST at the John Labatt Centre in London. The games can be heard live on 580 CKPR AM Radio in Thunder Bay and online at www.ckpr.com. The games will also be free videowebcast live off Westerns website at http://www.westernmustangs.ca/ and clicking on the Mustangs Vision logo.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said the games series should be intense. We are now playing for crucial divisional points and here we go again versus our #1 rivals; we are looking forward to playing the Stangs again; they are playing very well as of late and make no mistake about it, these games have playoff intensity written all over it. We will need to be at our defensive best in order to secure important points; we will need all hands on deck as the players demonstrated on Saturday evening against Waterloo.
The Thunderwolves are tied for second in the CIS in goals per game at 4.5 while Western is tied for fourth at 4.2 per game. Lakehead is tied for 8th in goals allowed at 3.2 while Western is tied for third at 2.5 per game.
Head to Head:
Lakehead is 12-22 all time against Western; 4-16 in regular season play but 8-6 in the playoffs. Western has outscored Lakehead 135-92 in their previous 34 meetings.
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
Lakehead is coming off a home-split against the No. 6 Waterloo Warriors and this weekend the Wolves will need to play with the same kind of intensity they displayed in Saturdays 3-0 shutout over the Warriors; the win coming without the services of leading scorer Tobias Whelan and Captain Jeff Richards.
A positive sign for the Wolves was the strong play of many players in Saturdays win without two of their star players. Another positive sign was the good team defense played in the win and a final positive note to take from that game was the strong play of goaltender Chris Whitley. If Whitley has regained his form; the Wolves will be that much stronger of a team in the stretch run to the playoffs.
Whelan (12 goals, 23 assists) is tied for second in both CIS and OUA scoring while freshman Mark Soares (15 goals, 11 assists) is tied for 6th in OUA scoring and tied for 10th in the CIS.
IR report;
Captain Jeff Richards, leading scorer Tobias Whelan, and Shandor Alphonso are all listed as day-to-day.
CLICK HERE for Wolves Stats.
Lakehead 06-07 Results:
Sat Jan 13 Lakehead 3 Waterloo 0
Fri Jan 12 Waterloo 6 Lakehead 4
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 Lakehead 4 Brock 2
Sat Oct 21 Lakehead 6 Windsor 2
Fri Oct 20 Lakehead 7 Windsor 3
Sat Oct 14 Waterloo 2 Lakehead 1
Fri Oct 13 Lakehead 5 Waterloo 4
Sat Oct 7 Lakehead 3 Lake Superior St 1 EX
Fri Oct 6 Michigan Tech 6 Lakehead 1 EX
Thu Oct 5 MN-Duluth 8 Lakehead 1 EX
Sat Sep 30 Mani