The Lakehead Thunderwolves will be playing on home ice again this weekend with a two-game series against the Concordia Stingers of the OUA East Division. The opening face-off is set for 7:00 p.m. at the Fort William Gardens on both Friday and Saturday nights.
The Records
Lakehead: 3-5-1 OUA (9th place West Division) 3-7-1 overall
Concordia: 5-4-1 OUA (4th place East Division) 7-6-1 overall
Recent Results
The Thunderwolves were off last weekend after being swept at home by Toronto by scores of 7-4 and 3-1 the week prior.
Concordia went one-for-two last weekend by defeating UQTR 5-1 at home on Friday before being shut out 2-0 at Carleton the following day.
Series History
The Thunderwolves hold the advantage in the all-time series versus Concordia with a record of 5-3 versus the Stingers.
The most recent meeting between the two programs took place in Thunder Bay in October of 2017. Concordia edged Lakehead 4-3 in the first game, but the Wolves replied with a 3-2 overtime victory the following evening.
Carrying the Load
Most of Lakehead’s offence has come from Josh Laframboise, Daniel Del Paggio and Tomas Soustal, with freshman defenceman Kyle Auger also contributing from the back end.
The Thunderwolves will need to get more production out of some of the other talented players on the roster that have proven scoring ability, but have been quiet as of late.
Opportunity Knocks
Concordia leads the OUA in penalty minutes by a wide margin (210 compared to Lakehead’s 100), so hopefully the Wolves can take advantage of some power play opportunities if that trend continues this weekend.
About the Stingers
Located in Montreal, Concordia is led by Head Coach Marc-Andre Element, now in his fourth season behind the Stingers’ bench. Element played five seasons as a right winger for Concordia from 2006 to 2011.
Freshman forward Tyler Hylland is the Stingers’ top scorer and is ranked fourth in the entire OUA. Teammates Bradley Lalonde and Jean-Phillippe Beaulieu can also put the puck in the net.
Pascal Corbeil and Gabriel Bilodeau are a pair of freshmen defencemen that have played major roles for Concordia early on.
Goalie Marc-Antoine Turcotte sees most of the action in the Stingers’ net and has posted a 2.37 GAA with a .928 SV% so far this season.