The No. 6 ranked Lakehead Thunderwolves offense was again on display as they defeated the Queen's Golden Gaels 8-1 Saturday night in Thunder Bay before 3003 fans in the second match of the two game series. Lakehead had defeated Queen's 10-1 on Friday night. The win raises the Thunderwolves OUA record to 9-3-0, and puts the Golden Gaels at 3-9-0 in conference play. The Thunderwolves were lead by Chris Shaffer with 2 goals and an assist, Captain Joel Scherban with a goal and 2 assists, Jeff Richards with 2 goals and 1 assist, Jason Lange with a goal and 2 assists, and Robert Hillier with 2 goals. The Lakehead powerplay accounted for 2 of the 8 Thunderwolves goals. It was a heavy-hitting game featuring numerous crunching bodychecks by both teams. Queen's played a much better game than Friday night's but couldn't seem to capitalize on their scoring chances while the Thunderwolves were deadly with theirs.
The first period saw some hard-hitting two-way play early marked by Lakehead's Hugo Lehoux hitting the post at 1:35. The Thunderwolves Robert Hillier opened the scoring at 3:35 when he ripped a wicked wrist shot over Queen's goalie Matt Kenney's glove, assisted by Brad Bartlett. Queen's tied the game at 9:12 when Mark Norman scored on the powerplay, assisted by Chris Burkett and Matt Macdonald. Queen's goalie Kenny made a great save off Lakehead's Jason Lange at 9:59, when Lange broke in alone but couldn't put the puck past Kenney. Lakehead's Jeff Richards made it 2-1 on the powerplay at 11:03 on a lovely pass from Joel Scherban, with the other assist going to Aaron Piccinin. Lakehead outshot Queen's 13-6 in the first.
The first half of the second was fairly slow-paced, but did feature two crunching hip checks by Lakehead's Mike Jacobsen, who also rang a wrist shot off the right post at the 2:00 mark. Lakehead defenseman Matt Kenny made a great sprawling block at 4:00 off a hard shot from a Queen's defenseman. Queen's goalie Matt Kenney made a great glove save off Lakehead's Jeff Richards at 10:30, when Richards broke in on a breakaway. Lakehead's Robert Hillier tipped in a blast from the point from Aaron Piccinin at 10:52, with the other assist going to Mark Robinson. The Thunderwolves Jason Lange made it 4-1 at 17:25 on the powerplay, when his cross-crease pass banked off Queen's player Chris Burkett into the Gaels' goal. Lakehead's Chris Shaffer scored a beautiful goal, his 12th of the season, at 18:10, assisted by Jason Lange and Jeff Adduono. Lange threaded a lovely pass through the Queen's defenseman's skates across the front of the net to Shaffer who lifted the puck high over Kenney's shoulder and just under the crossbar.
The first half of the third again featured some heavy hits and fairly even play. Queen's had a two man advantage from 7:15 to 9:15, but couldn't get the puck past Lakehead netminder Cory McEachran, who made 4 great saves during that span. Jason Lange then rang the post at the 10:00 mark, and the Thunderwolves took control of the game from here on in. Joel Scherban scored at 11:57 on a lovely give-and-go from Jeff Richards, with the other assist going to Bryan Duce. Chris Shaffer notched his 13th at 13:32 on a one-timer set up beautifully by Jeff Adduono, with the other assist going to Jason Lange. Jeff Richards closed out the scoring at 15:39, with assists going to Scherban and Matt Kenny. The game ended with some really heavy hitting, including a thunderous body check by Lakehead's Chris Shaffer on Queen's Brett Dean. Lakehead goalie McEachran ended the game with a nice last second glove save. Lakehead outshot Queen's 9-8 in the third and 37-20 for the game.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said the win came from a total team effort. "This is what any coach would like to see. Everybody played well and worked really hard. Queen's played much better tonight, I don't think the score reflected what a tough battle it really was. Matt Kenny playe