The Lakehead Thunderwolves fell 8-4 to the Ottawa Gee Gees at the Minto Sports Complex in Ottawa on Friday night.
Ottawas Marc Beckstead opened the high-scoring affair when he ripped a wrist shot past Wolves netminder Justin McDonald 9:10 into the game.
Justin Sefton rifled a slap shot from the point that beat Ottawa goalie Anthony Brodeur through the wickets while the Thunderwolves were on the power play at 15:54, with Kelin Ainsworth and Billy Jenkins getting the assists.
Cody Alcock scored an unassisted goal just over a minute later on a backhander to put the Wolves in front 2-1 heading into the second.
Ottawa tied the game 31 seconds into the middle frame when Cody Drover fired the rubber into an empty cage after McDonald was caught out of position after mishandling the puck behind the net, and Brendan Jacome put the Gee Gees ahead 3-2 on a shot from the slot just over two minutes later.
Carson Dubchak evened the score when he held the puck on an odd-man rush and beat Brodeur high on the short side at 7:43, with Alcock and Brennen Dubchak picking up the helpers.
Ottawas Michael Poirier replied for the Gee Gees with a point shot that made its way through traffic and past McDonald 67 seconds later.
Ottawa went up 5-3 at the 17:41 mark when Connor Sills converted from the slot just as a Gee Gees power play was about to expire. Another penalty cost the Wolves shortly thereafter, as Poirier notched his second goal of the game on a screened shot with 27 seconds left on the clock.
Despite allowing five goals in the wide-open second period, McDonald made several big stops to keep the Gee Gees from pulling even further ahead, but was replaced by Devin Green in the Lakehead net to begin the third period.
Ottawa took advantage of a four-on-two break and extended its lead to 7-3 when Jacob Hanlon finished off a perfect tic-tac-toe play with a blast that went between Greens legs at 5:27.
Ainsworth stole the puck from an Ottawa defender behind the Gee Gees net and fed Jenkins in front who snapped the puck behind Brodeur at 10:55 to narrow the gap to 7-4.
Ottawa scored an easy goal off a two-on-one after Greens attempted poke check was unsuccessful, leaving Kevin Domingue an open net to round out the scoring at 16:33.
Total shots on goal in the game were 43-28 in favor of the Gee Gees.
On the night, Lakehead went 1-for-3 on the power play, while Ottawa was 2-for-3.
The loss drops Lakeheads conference record to 8-9-1 and to 10-13-1 overall. The Wolves will look to get back in the win column when the two teams square off again on Saturday night.