The Lakehead Thunderwolves hockey team took game two of their weekend series 7-2 against the Ottawa Gee Gees, Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
The game started off slow, and was a much tamer affair than Friday nights knock em down, drag em out affair. Ottawa goaltender Aaron Barton made some nice saves in the first period, including stopping Thunderwolves defenseman Pierre Marc Guilbault (St.Julie, PQ) on a clean breakaway.
After a scoreless first period, the floodgates opened in the second. Sophomore Brennan Menard (Thunder Bay, ON) got things going at 2:48 with a quick shot in close. Assists went to Kalvin Sagert (Abbotsford, BC) and Trevor Gamache (Thunder Bay, ON). Ottawa replied seconds later as Austin Krahenbil went five-hole on Thunderwolves goaltender Kyle Moir (Calgary, AB). The Wolves quickly answered at 3:55 of the second when Matt Caria (Sault St. Marie, ON) got on the board with an unassisted marker to make it 2-1.
Mike Quesnele (Sault St. Marie, ON) scored his first goal as a Thunderwolf on the powerplay at 10:33 of the second, on a beautiful feed from Caria, with the other assist going to Adam Sergerie (Thunder Bay, ON). After doing some yeomans work down low, Ryan Magill (Thunder Bay, ON) made it 4-1 by sliding the puck past Barton. It was also Magills first goal in a Lakehead uniform, with the assist going to Mitch Maunu (Thunder Bay, ON).
Ottawa seemed to gain some momentum in the third period when Barton stopped Kris Hogg (Sicamous, BC) on a breakaway, quickly followed by the Gee Gees Gabriel Houde flipping the puck over Moirs glove, to cut the lead to 4-2.
That was all the scoring Ottawa could muster for the game. Sergerie scored to widen the lead to 5-2 at 11:08 of the third period, with assists going to Caria and junior forward Andy Hyvarinen (Thunder Bay, ON). Hogg picked up a power-play marker at 11:08 of the third on a tic-tac-toe passing play from Hyvarinen and Andrew Wilkins (Pickering, ON) to make it 6-2. Play got a little chippy towards the end of the game, with plenty of penalties handed out to both sides. Magill scored his second of the night with barely any time left on the clock to seal the victory. The assist went to Aaron Alphonso (Orangeville, ON).
Caria dominated the face-off circle all night, and led the way for the Wolves with three points, continuing his torrid early season pace.
Action picks back up next Friday as the Wolves host the Waterloo Warriors in the OUA regular season opener at the Fort William Gardens.