The Lakehead Thunderwolves fell 7-1 to the Ryerson Rams in front of 2538 fans at the Fort William Gardens on Saturday night; a penalty-filled affair in which 130 minutes in penalties were handed out, most of them to Lakehead.
The first period was evenly played with plenty of scoring opportunities for both sides, but the Rams converted those chances into goals three times while the Wolves were stymied by the goaltending of Garrett Forrest.
Steven Harland struck first when he banged the puck past Wolves’ goalie Devin Green from the edge of the crease at 4:21.
Hayden McCool got a power play marker at 12:06, and Zachary Shankar added another from close range at 16:57.
Ryerson added two more early in the middle frame, both goals coming while the Rams held a five-on-three man advantage. Gregory DiTomaso got the first one at the 2:01 mark on a perfect set up that Green had no chance on, and Alex Basso got the second with a one-timer from the top of the circle at 3:32.
Wolves’ forward Sam Schutt was robbed when Forrest made a brilliant stick save with seven minutes to go in the period, but Caleb Boman finally beat him on a Lakehead power play at 16:30 with a rocket that slipped between his pads to make the score 5-1.
With Lakehead playing short-handed much of the time, Green was forced to make several big stops in second period to keep the score from getting even more lopsided.
David Miller got Ryerson’s fourth power play goal of the game 1:40 into the third, and Mark Shoemaker finished off the scoring when he rang one off the post and in with just four second left in the contest.
Total shots on goal in the game were 46-35 for the Rams.
For the night, the Thunderwolves were 1-for-4 on the power play, while the Rams went 4-for-12.
The Molson Three Stars of the game were:
- Garrett Forrest, Ryerson
- Alex Basso, Ryerson
- Dylan Butler, Lakehead
Lakehead goes into the Christmas exams break with an OUA record of 8-7-1 (12-8-1 overall) and won’t play again until December 28-29 when the Wolves host the Laurentian Voyageurs.