The Lakehead Thunderwolves dominated the Windsor Lancers 5-2 on Friday night at the Fort William Gardens, in Thunder Bay, ON.
Both teams came out of the gate with some nice jump early on, trading chances - including Lakehead forward Andrew Wilkins putting one off the post after some sustained pressure in the Windsor zone.
Thunderwolves defenseman Mitch Maunu made an impact early on with two crushing hits in the opening five minutes. Not long after, thanks to some nice board work by Matt Caria, Victor Anilane out waited Windsor goaltender Jim Watt and fired a shot past him to put the Wolves up 1-0. Assists went to Caria and Ryan McDonald on the powerplay. Lakehead controlled the tempo for the rest of the first period.
Lakehead picked up where it left off in the second period. Matt Caria pulled off a great move to sidestep a Windsor defenseman and wired a laser wrist shot past Jim Watt to put Lakehead up 2-0 at 4:59 of the second. Brennan Menard drew the assist on the goal with some nice moves down low to keep the play alive before he found Caria, who was flying all period.
The Thunderwolves wasted no time getting on the board in the third period as Adam Sergerie was fed by Brock McPherson alone in front of the net and made no mistake on the shot, putting Lakehead in front 3-0 just 1:26 into the period. 33 seconds later Caria and McDonald broke into the Windsor zone on a 2-on-1, and McDonald fired a shot past Watt on a beautiful saucer pass from Caria to put Lakehead up 4-0. That signaled the end of the night for Watt, as Frank Dayus replaced him in the Windsor goal.
The goaltender change didn't seem to make much of a difference as Brock McPherson converted a nice pass on the power-play from Andrew Wilkins at 5:28 of the third period to put Lakehead in front 5-0.
Windsor got two late goals from Kyle Nishizaki and Mike Lombardi in the final couple minutes of the game to make it 5-2, but it was too little too late for the Lancers.
One downside to the game was when Kris Hogg, fell awkwardly into the boards late in the second period. He left the game after that and did not return.
Both teams are back in action Saturday night at 7:30PM at the Fort William Gardens.