The Lakehead Thunderwolves fell 4-2 to the Brock Badgers in front of 2361 fans at the Fort William Gardens on Friday night.
The Wolves were playing with an injury-depleted defensive corps with only four healthy rearguards in the line-up, so forwards Trevor Hynnes and Jake Carrick were forced to pull some duty back on the blue line.
Brock opened the scoring at 8:07 of the first period when Spencer Turcotte beat Wolves netminder Justin McDonald on a deflection.
After receiving a nice pass at the blue line from Lakeheads Mike Hammond, Keith Grondin drilled the puck top shelf on Brock goalie Adrian Volpe to even the score at the 14:33 mark.
The Badgers responded almost immediately on a two-on-one break when Tyson Dallman fired a wrist shot past McDonald, and less than a minute later Johnson Andrews scored to give Brock a 3-1 lead to close out the scoring in the opening stanza.
With Lakehead on the power play, Mike Hammond narrowed the gap to 3-2 when he completed a nifty toe-drag by flipping the puck high on Volpe at 6:33 of the second period. Grondin picked up the lone assist.
The Thunderwolves controlled most of the play in the middle frame, with Grondin and Kelin Ainsworth having great chances to tie the score but both rang shots of the post instead.
Andrews recorded his second goal of the night 4:27 into the third period to put Brock ahead 4-2, and despite plenty of offensive pressure, Lakehead was unable to put anything past Volpe for the remainder of the contest.
The Molson Three Stars of the game were:
1.Mike Hammond, Lakehead
2.Johnson Andrews, Brock
3.Keith Grondin, Lakehead
The two teams will hit the ice again on Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens, with the opening face-off set for 7:30.