The Lakehead Thunderwolves beat the Laurier Golden Hawks 4-2 on Saturday night in front of 2309 fans at the Fort William Gardens in the second game of their weekend series in Thunder Bay, ON.
Laurier was in control of the play to start the game, at least as far as shot on goal went, outshooting Lakehead 13-5 in the first period.
Both teams came out in the second period with a lot more jump to their game. The Golden Hawks got on the board at 1:38 of when a streaking Derek Schoenmakers fired a hard wrist shot past Justin McDonald, who was making his sixth consecutive start in the Lakehead goal.
Jake Carrick evened things up for the Wolves at 6:29 of the second, batting in a rebound from a Nathan Bruyere shot from the point. The other assist on the power-play goal went to Andrew Wilkins.
Laurier goaltender Vinny Merante kept the game tied up with a big save on a shorthanded breakaway from Trevor Gamache.
The physical play picked up in the middle frame with several big hits doled out from both sides.
In the third period, freshman defenseman Nathan Bruyere scored his first goal in a Lakehead uniform on a rocket one-timer from Andrew Wilkins at 2:06.
Ryan Magill increased the Lakehead lead to 3-1 at 6:01 of the final stanza with a shorthanded marker. The lone assist went to Kelin Ainsworth.
Not long after, Laurier Captain Tyler Stothers pulled the Golden Hawks to within one as he banged home a loose puck during a goal mouth scramble at 6:35.
Mike Quesnele added an empty-netter at the end of the game to seal the 4-2 win and the weekend sweep.
The Molson 3 Stars of the game were:
1st Star Nathan Bruyere, Lakehead
2nd Star Justin McDonald, Lakehead
3rd Star Kelin Ainsworth, Lakehead
The Thunderwolves are in action next weekend at home against the Alberta Golden Bears, who are currently ranked first in the CIS Hockey Top Ten Poll.