The Lakehead Thunderwolves beat the Calgary Dinos 5-4 in overtime on Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, ON.
Lakehead came out looking to build on Friday nights strong performance. Both teams played a tight defensive game, and not many chances were taken on either side. Lakehead got on the board first on a power-play goal from freshman Mitch Fillman at 11:30 that put the Wolves up 1-0. Assists on the goal went to Andrew Wilkins and Mike Quesnele.
The start of second period was not kind to the Thunderwolves as the Dinos scored three goals in the opening five minutes.
Calgarys Walker Wintoneak, a Thunder Bay native; got things started for the Dinos as he broke in and wired a shot over Lakehead netminder Jeff Bosch just 45 seconds into the period. Just 44 seconds later, Reid Jorgenson shoveled the puck past Bosch to put Calgary in front 2-1. Jorgenson added another at 4:46 to increase the Dinos lead to 3-1.
The outburst seemed to wake up Lakehead, as Trevor Gamache and Andrew Wilkins both threw some big hits to get the team back in the game. It was the spark the Wolves needed as Mike Quesnele found himself with the puck down low on a delayed penalty, and made no mistake as he pulled Lakehead to within one at 12:14. Assists on the goal were credited to Keith Grondin and Mitch Fillman.
Trevor Gamache evened things up for Lakehead at 15:37 of the second, as Quesnele found him in front of the net for an easy goal. The other assist went to Andrew Wilkins.
Jason Grecica put Lakehead in front 4-3 at 16:12 of the wild second period, as Jake Carrick found him in front. The other assist was credited to Ryan Magill.
With only 11 seconds left in the period, Calgarys Brock Nixon fired a rocket over the shoulder of Bosch, sending both teams into the intermission knotted at 4-4.
The third period was much tighter defensively after a sloppy second period. There was no scoring in the period, but both teams traded chances and hits throughout the period.
At 2:18 of overtime, Mike Hammond clinched it for Lakehead, on a nice cross-ice feed from Trevor Gamache, to give the Thunderwolves the 5-4 win.
Lakehead is on Christmas break until Dec 29th & 30th, when the Carleton Ravens come to town for the RBC Christmas Challenge.