The Lakehead Thunderwolves let the defending CIS Champions University of Western Mustangs know that the 2002-2003 OUAseason would not be a repeat of last year's unbeaten run. The Thunderwolves swept the Mustangsby scoring a 3-1 win Saturday night in Thunder Bay. Lakehead had beaten Western 5-3 on Friday night. The win lifts the Thunderwolves OUA record to 2-0-0 while Western drops to 0-2-0. The deadly Lakehead powerplayaccounted for 2 of the 3 Thunderwolves goals.
Both teams came out flying in the first period, entertaining the crowd of 3421 with some exciting, clean, two-way hockey. Western opened the scoring at 8:35 on a goal by Ryan Held, assisted by Joe Talbot. Western goalkeeper Mike D'Alessandro made some excellent saves until Lakehead's Chris Shaffer scored on the powerplayat 12:24. Shaffer tipped a Matt Kenny slapshot from the point, then knocked in his own rebound. The Thunderwolves Jeff Richards scored again on the powerplayat 14:18, on a lovely passing play from Joel Scherban and Bryan Duce. Western hit the post at the 19:30 mark to almost even up the score. Lakehead outshot Western 12-8 in the first period.
The second period saw Lakehead applying some early pressure, but Western's D'Alessandro again made some great saves to keep the score at 2-1for Lakehead. Lakehead's Chris Shaffer finally beat D'Alessandro with a low snap shot that trickled through the Western keeper's legs. The period ended with Lakehead goaltender Grant McCune making an incredible glove save off of a rocket fired by the Mustang's Jeff Martin. Lakehead outshot Western 8-5 in the second period.
Western came out fast in the third period, but could not generate any great scoring chances. Lakehead then took control, peppering D'Alessandro, with Lakehead's Bryan Duce ringing the post at the 4:40 mark. Play then turned back in the Mustangs favour, but Lakhead's McCune held them off. Western's Alessandro then robbed Lakehead's Jeff Richards at 8:20 on a point-blank blast from the slot. The last 6 minutes saw both teams getting good scoring opportunities and both goaltenders coming up big. The game ended with a spate of penalties and some skirmishing as the visitors started to show their frustration. Western outshot Lakehead 10-5 in the third.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau was happy with his team's performance.
"I'm really proud of the players, we held the national champs to 4 goals in 2 games. When you beat two of the best teams in Canada in eights days, you must be doing something right. Our team executed our game plan perfectly and Grant McCune was our star in goal again, making stop after stop. It's a long season, but this is something positive to build on."
The Three Stars, as selected by TBT/CKPR Sports Director Bryan Wyatt,were:
1) Lakehead's Chris Shaffer
2) Lakehead's Grant McCune
3) Lakehead's Jeff Richards
My T-Wolves Shout Outs goes to Matt Kenny for doing the tough work and blocking shots, and for Joel Scherban for controlling the play with good puck control.
Lakehead outshot Western 25-23 in the game. The Thunderwolves travel to Waterloo next weekend to take on the University of Waterloo Warriors.