The Lakehead Thunderwolves beat the Brock Badges 6-4 on Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, ON.
Lakehead controlled play in the early parts of the first period; only to have the Badgers get on the board first as Thomas Stajan tipped a pass in front past Lakehead netminder Alex Dupuis at 4:19 of the first to give Brock the early lead.
The Thunderwolves tied it up at 6:03 of the first as Ryan McDonald put home a nice pass courtesy of Matt Caria. The other assist was credited to Thomas Frazee. Defenceman Mitch Maunu put Lakehead in front 2-1 on a nice deke that fooled Badger goalie Kurt Jory at 10:30 of the first. Assists on the goal went to Ryan Magill and Victor Anilane.
Mike Quesnele got things rolling for Lakehead early in the second period when he made a nice move to bring the puck deep into the Badger zone and put a nifty shot past Jory. Mike Hammond and Trevor Gamache collected the assists.
The bounces continued to go Lakeheads way as Andrew Wilkins batted down a pass attempt at the Lakehead blueline and converted on a short-handed breakaway to give Lakehead a seemingly comfortable 4-1 lead.
But Brock erased Lakeheads three goal lead, with three unanswered goals courtesy of Dan Tanel, Dylan MacEachran and Ryan Allen, evening things up at 4-4 by the 3-minute mark of the third period.
Lakehead restored its lead at 7:26 of the third when Thomas Frazee found the twine to put the Wolves up 5-4. Assists on the goal went to Jake Carrick and Keith Grondin.
Mike Hammond iced the game for Lakehead with under two-minutes left in the period on a bad angle shot that eluded Jory, making the final score 6-4 for the Thunderwolves.
The Molson 3 Stars of the game were:
1-Andrew Wilkins, Lakehead
2-Mike Hammond, Lakehead
3- Thomas Stajan, Brock
Next up for the Thunderwolves are the OUA playoffs. Lakehead finished in second-place in the OUA West Division and will meet the seventh-place Guelph Gryphons in the West Division Quarter-Finals. Game One of the playoffs is set for Wednesday night in Guelph, and will be broadcast live on Rock 94 FM. Game Two will be Friday night at 7:30 in Thunder Bay, and if necessary, Game Three will go Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens.