Lakehead's Bryan Duce scored the game winner with 7 seconds left to give the No. 5 Lakehead Thunderwolves an exciting 3-2 victory over the No. 4 Western Mustangs Friday night at the Thompson Arena in London, Ontario. The win raised the injury depleted Thunderwolves' record to 3-0-0 (7-1-0 overall) in OUA play.
Lakehead's goals came from Joel Scherban, Jounni Kuokkanen, and Duce. Duce also added an assist to lead the Thunderwolves. Michael Rice and Michael Stathopoulos scored for the Mustangs with Justin Davis adding two assists.
The first period was very hard hitting in the early stages, with both teams getting some good scoring chances. Western's Michael Rice put the Mustangs on the board at 11.35 with the assist going to Justin Davis. The Mustangs had a slight edge in good scoring chances in the first, but the Thunderwolves outshot them 12-8.
Lakehead started the second on the powerplay and made no mistake when Joel Scherban got the equalizer at 58 seconds, assisted by Jeff Richards. Jounni Kuokkanen made it 2-1 Lakehead soon after at 4:43, assisted by Austin Wycisk and Shawn Perring. Western's Stathopoulos tied the score at 18:41, assisted by Davis. Western outshot Lakehead 15-10 in the second.
Play in the early going was very tentative by both teams as neither side wanted to make a mistake that could cost a goal. Play began to pick up in the second half of the period as both teams had some good scoring chances but neither team could seem to break the deadlock until Lakehead's Bryan Duce fired an incredible, unassisted, seeing-eye rocket that beat Western's goaltender Mike D'Allessandro just under the glove from a very sharp angle at 19:53. Lakehead outshot Western 34-29 in the game.
Head Coach Pete Belliveau said his team would take the hard fought win. "Credit to the boys, they played pretty hard, but we can play better. Western took it to us in the third and Grant McCune had to play his best. It's great that we don't have our best game, we have a lot of injuries, but can still come away with a win against one of the best teams in the country. Our fourth line of regular defenseman Shawn Perring, Jounni Kuokkanen, and Austin Wycisk had a great game, they really stepped up tonight. But, tomorrow we'll have to play better because Western will come out hard and take it to us."
The two teams take to the ice again Saturday night at the Thompson Arena at 7:35.