The Lakehead Thunderwolves edged the York Lions 4-2 to take game #1 in the best-of-three OUA West Division quarter-finals at the Canlan Ice Sports Arena in Toronto on Wednesday night.
DavidQuesnele opened the scoring at 12:04 of the first period with a blast that eluded York goalie Andrew Perugini, with the assists going to Carson Dubchak and Ryan Magill.
A few minutes later, Brennan Menard knocked in a rebound on a play set up by Adam Restoule and Matt Kaarela to give Lakehead a 2-0 lead heading into the second period.
Mike Hammond extended the Wolves lead on a power play marker at 7:03 of the middle stanza with the assists credited to Jake Carrick and Andrew Wilkins.
The Lions picked up their game in the second period, but for every scoring opportunity they created, Lakehead netminder Jeff Bosch was equal to the task, and Lakehead took a 3-0 lead into the final frame.
York broke its scoring drought just 56 seconds into the third period when Jordan Forfar fired the puck past Bosch on the blocker side.
Less than two minutes later, the Lions cut the lead to 3-2 when York defenceman John de Gray went top-shelf on Bosch.
The Lions applied a lot of pressure in the latter stages of the game, but Bosch made several big saves to preserve the Wolves lead.
Cody Alcock iced the game with an empty net goal with only31 seconds remaining on the clock.
Shots on goal for the game were 37-26 for the Lions.
The series will shift back to Thunder Bay for game #2 on Friday night. If necessary, game #3 will be Saturday evening at the Fort William Gardens.