The Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team opens its OUA regular season on the road in Waterloo, Ontario as they tackle the Waterloo Warriors Friday and Saturday nights at the Columbia Ice Fields arena.
The Thunderwolves are coming off a three-games-in-three-day NCAA Lake Superior Circle Tour which saw them win their first ever game against an NCAA Division I team with a victory over Lake Superior State. The Wolves are now 2-3 in varsity non-conference and exhibition play this season and also dropped two games to the AHLs Manitoba Moose. Waterloo had an impressive non-conference pre-season; going 2-1-1 and notching a win over NCAA Division I Canisius.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said any series against the Wariors is a battle. Precious Far West Divisions points are up for grabs as both teams open the OUA regular season. We wanted a tough non-conf pre-season schedule to prepare us for games like these because Waterloos arena is a tough place to earn points. This year's edition of the Thunderwolves will do well on the road as we play a more defensive game. These two games will be hard fought with specialty teams and total team discipline being the key. Coach Bourque has again recruited well and his team will be very well prepared and it should be a great series to start the season.
Waterloo Head Coach Brian Bourque said his team is looking forward to the home opener against Lakehead. We are excited for the challenge of hosting the defending league champions for our first two home games of the 2006-07 season. Lakehead has been strong every year they have been in the league and we expect nothing less again this year.
Both games can be heard live in Thunder Bay on 580 CKPR AM radio and on the net at www.ckpr.com with CKPR News and Sports Director Bryan Wyatt calling all the action. Game times are 7:00 pm EST.
Head to Head:
The Thunderwolves are 15-5-2 against Waterloo; 13-5-2 in regular season action and 2-0 in playoff action. Lakehead has outscored Waterloo 93-67 in those games. However, Waterloo had the better of Lakehead last season; recording two wins, a tie and a loss.
Last Season:
The Wolves posted a 13-9-3 record in the OUA Far West Division last year to finish third while Waterloo was 15-6-3 and finished second. Lakehead went on to have a incredible playoff run that saw them win the Queens Cup and make it to the CIS National Final before bowing out to Alberta while Waterloo won their OUA first round series against Brock but lost in the second round to hated rival Laurier.
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
Lakehead played a very tough pre-season schedule again this year as Head Coach Pete Belliveau wanted to get his squad ready for the OUA regular season campaign.
Captain Jeff Richards (5 goals, 2 assists) will lead his troops against the Warriors and his speed is a constant threat. Tobias Whelan has looked very solid in the pre-season and Lakehead will count on him to generate offense along with Dan Speer, Mike Wehrstedt, Shandor Alphonso, and Mark Robinson.
New players like Matt Maissoneuve (2 goals), Richard Molenaar, Donnie Mitchell, and Ryan Maunu have shown flashes while the Wolves are looking to freshman Mark Soares for offense.
Defensively, Mike Self, Steve Rawski, and Drew Kivell will anchor the defense with the strong support of Dan Rogers and freshman Jarryd Brend. The Wolves will look to Matt Jacques to lead the d-men offensively.
Chris Whitley has already played some great hockey between the pipes for Lakehead and the Wolves will look for him to carry this into the regular season. He will be ably backed by Matt Iorianni and Matti Korhonen in the Lakehead goal.
Lakehead 06-07 Results:
Sat Oct 7 Lakehead 3 Lake Superior State 1
Fri Oct 6 Michigan Tech 6 Lakehead 1 EX
Thu Oct<