The Lakehead Thunderwolves swept their two game non-conference series against the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds with a 7-1 win before 3202 fans at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay Saturday night. The win follows their 5-4 win on Friday night. The game was a much faster paced game than Friday's gritty affair, with both teams generating a lot of offensive chances, but Lakehead being more effective at capitalizing on their chances.
The Thunderwolves' offense was paced by Murray Magill with a goal and four assists and Wyatt Tunnicliffe who notched three goals. Sean Perring and Peter Cava each had two assists for Lakehead. UBC's lone goal came from Shawn Villeneuve. Lakehead goaltender Grant McCune was especially sharp, turning away 34 or 35 Thunderbird shots, including an 18 save second period.
The first period was very fast but both teams had trouble hitting the net in the early going. Lakehead's Magill opened the scoring at 9:24 when he picked up the puck at his own blue line and streaked up the left side before beating UBC goalie Robert Filc over the shoulder with a hard wrist shot. Both UBC's Filc and Lakehead's McCune made some good saves in the period. Wyatt Tunnicliffe made it 2-0 at 19:46, beating Filc between the pads after a great pass from Murray Magill. Although Lakehead had an edge in better chances, UBC outshot Lakehead 7-6 in the first.
The second period saw the UBC offense come to life as the Thunderbirds peppered Lakehead's McCune with 19 shots. Lakehead penalties kept them on the defensive and McCune had to be very sharp in the net, stopping many point blank shots and robbing UBC's Rob Murray on a breakaway. UBC got on the scoreboard at 3:59 on the powerplay when Shawn Villeneuve beat McCune when he deflected a shot by Tim McEachen. Lakehead rookie Mike Wehrstedt countered for the Thunderwolves at 8:00 finishing on a lovely three way passing play set up by Jounni Kuokkanen and Jeff Adduono. Although UBC outshot Lakehead 19-6 in the second, McCune was up to the task.
The third period saw the Thunderwolves begin to live up to their offensive potential as they totally dominated play, scoring four beautiful goals. Tunnicliffe scored his second of the game at 5:07 when he one-timed a Robert Hillier pass by Filc. Tunnicliffe then got his hat trick at 8:57 when Murray Magill set him up on a fast break and Tunnicliffe cleanly beat Filc with a quick shot. This goal chased UBC's Filc out of the net and Coach Milan Dragecevic put Chris Levesque between the pipes. Lakehead speedster Jeff Richards scored a beautiful shorthanded goal at 12:39 when he flew in from his own blue line and dropped Levesque with a fake and then lifted a backhander over the sprawled UBC goaltender before crashing into the goal.
Lakehead's Mike Jacobsen then completed the scoring at 16:29 on the powerplay, when he blasted a rocket from the left point that beat Levesque over the right shoulder. The game ended with some rough stuff highlighted by a short tiff between Lakehead's Hugo Lehoux and UBC's Shon Jones-Perry. Shots were even in the third at nine apiece and UBC outshot Lakehead 35-20 in the game. But, Lakehead's offense was to be able to score very quickly, scoring 7 times on 20 shots, while UBC's offense had to work very hard for their opportunities.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau saw some improvement in his team from Friday's effort. "I'm still not totally happy with our effort and there are areas we have to improve upon, but it was only our second game. We played without four key players tonight and I think we will gel even more once they return. Our second period was the worst of the series, but then we came back with our best effort in the third after a good talk in the dressing room between periods. Grant McCune and Murray<