Led by junior forward Mike Hammonds five-point night, the Lakehead Thunderwolves defeated the Waterloo Warriors 6-4 in front of 2204 fans at the Fort William Gardens on Friday night.
Lakehead quickly broke out to a 3-0 lead by the time the first period ended, but the play was much closer than the score indicated, as Wolves goalie Jeff Bosch was strong through the opening frame, making several key stops.
Luke Maw opened the scoring off a nice pass from Mike Hammond at just 2:31 of the first. Mitch Fillman had the second assist.
Lakehead made it 2-0 just 37 seconds later when Mike Hammond found a streaking Cody Alcock, who slid it past Waterloo goaltender Justin Leclerc.
Hammond made it 3-0 for the Wolves on a beautiful goal as he danced around two Warriors and then Leclerc, dropping the puck off in a wide open cage and 14:29 of the first. Carson Dubchak and Jay Gilbert were credited with the assists.
In the second period Mike Quesnele made it 4-0 for the home team on a one-time blast from the point off a nice feed from Hammond. The other assist went to Jake Carrick.
It looked like Lakehead was going to head into the second intermission with a commanding 4-0 lead, but after Cody Alcock hit the post, Waterloo streaked back the other way and Tyler Norrie fired a hard wrister past Jeff Bosch, making it 4-1 for the Wolves heading into the third period.
In the final frame, Waterloo cut Lakeheads lead in half on a 5-on-3 power-play when Justin Larson, last years OUA leading scorer, fired a one-timer past Bosch just two minutes into the third.
Waterloo then pulled to within one goal on the same power-play when Larson scored again after he found the puck to the side of the net and put it past Bosch.
Tyler Norrie tied the game at 4-4 up at 6:30 of the third period, capping a remarkable comeback for the Warriors.
Lakehead re-took the lead on an amazing individual effort by Kelin Ainsworth as he weaved through the Warrior zone and tucked it past Leclerc to put the Wolves up 5-4. The assist on the goal went to Hammond.
Ainsworth notched another when he added a late empty-netter to seal the 6-4 win. Jake Carrick and Andrew Tessier had the assists on the goal.
The winguarantess that Lakehead can finish no lower than third-place in the OUA West Division, andsecures the Wolves home-ice advantage for at least the first round of the playoffs.
The Molson Three Stars of the game were:
1.Mike Hammond, Lakehead
2.Kelin Ainsworth, Lakehead
3.Justin Larson, Waterloo
Both teams are back at it on Saturday night to finish up the regular season.