Led by freshman forward Cody Alcocks four-goal outburst, the Lakehead Thunderwolves beat the Laurier Golden Hawks 5-4 in an exciting game on Friday night at the Fort William Gardens in front of a crowd of 2,609.
Lakehead opened the scoring when Alcock out-waited Laurier goalie Shayne Campbell and gave the Wolves an early 1-0 lead. Assists on the goal went to Mike Quesnele and Trevor Gamache.
The Wolves had the better of the scoring chances early on, but Laurier tied it up at 13:11 of the opening frame as Derek Schoenmakers found the loose puck in a goal-mouth scramble, putting it past Lakehead netminder Justin McDonald.
Lakehead restored their lead with only 53 seconds left in the period as Alcock got on the board again, ripping a wrist-shot past Campbell to give the Wolves a 2-1 lead heading into the second. The assists were credited to Gamache and Nathan Bruyere.
Justin McDonald stood strong in the Lakehead net in the second period, stopping Laurier forward Mackenzie Braid on a short-handed breakaway.
Not long after, junior forward Mike Hammond scored a beauty, walking out of the corner and firing it top corner, giving Lakehead the 3-1 lead.
Laurier got back to within one as forward Ryan Lopes put one past McDonald on another goal-mouth scramble, making it 3-2.
In the third period, Cody Alcock completed the hat-trick on a great one-time pass from Andrew Wilkins, increasing Lakeheads lead to 4-2. The other assist went to Mike Quesnele.
Peter McInstosh got it right back for Laurier putting a nice wrister past McDonald to bring them to within a goal once again.
Cody Alcock continued his onslaught at 15:07 of the third as he put a seeing-eye shot past Campbell to give Lakehead the 5-3 lead.
Laurier made it interesting with under a minute left as Lauriers Luke Hietkamp fired it past McDonald, but Lakehead was able to hold on for the 5-4 win.
The Molson 3 Stars of the game were:
1.Cody Alcock, Lakehead
2.Mike Hammond, Lakehead
3.Andrew Wilkins, Lakehead
Both teams are back at it on Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m.