The Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team continues its biggest divisional rivalry when they welcome the No. 7 Western Mustangs this Friday and Saturday to the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay. This is a crucial OUA Far West divisional series with Lakehead at 4-2 in OUA play (5-5 overall); good for second place in the division. Western leads the divison with a 5-2 OUA record (8-3-1 overall).
Friday nights game is the annual Blue & Gold Game; presented by Thunderwolves Hockey and the Lakehead University Alumni Association. The game will see Lakehead alumni, students, and staff decked out in blue and gold colours as they cheer on the Wolves.
Lakehead is coming off an away split with Laurier while Western defeated Windsor and Waterloo in their last two games.
Lakhead Head Coach Don McKee said this is going to be a huge weekend for both teams. Hosting divisional rival Western is one of the biggest weekends of hockey for the Fort Williams' Gardens. These two four-point divisional swing games are critical for both teams in order to maintain a playoff position. In my thirteen years in Waterloo; Laurier and Western were two of the Warriors top rivals. Coming to Thunder Bay; I see that the Wolves and the Mustangs have developed an even fiercer rivalry over the past six years. Western is deep in talent on the blueline; keeping nine defencemen on their roster. With solid goaltending, they do not need to score a lot of goals to win games. As a result, I think the two teams will match up well against each other and it will be a great weekend for our great Lakehead fans in Thunder Bay and those watching on the internet.
Both games face off at 7:30 pm EST and both will be videowebcast live with ordering information available at http://events.news-cast.com/events/Lakehead. Alan Wickware will call all the action live with Lakehead Sports Information Director Mike Aylward adding colour.
Head to Head:
Western has traditionally given Lakehead the most trouble in the regular season with the Thunderwolves posting a 12-25-1 record against the Stangs overall; 4-19-1 in the regular season, but a solid 8-6 in the playoffs. Western has outscored Lakehead 153-101 in those 38 games. The Stangs lead the conference in goals for with 30 while Lakehead is third with 26 in one less game.
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
The new-look Wolves are coming off a very solid series on the road against the Laurier Golden Hawks. They came back from a 3-1 deficit to win 6-3 in the Saturday game and then lost a 4-3 thriller in the Sunday game. A home sweep against the Stangs is a tall order; but something that would really help the Wolves in their hunt for the playoffs.
Both netminders Chris Whitley (2-0, GAA 2..00, SV% .937) and Kyle Moir (2-2, GAA 3.26, SV% .896) played well against Laurier; with Whitley picking up the win and Moir taking the close loss but playing solid. The Lakehead defence continues to improve and they will face a huge challenge in the dangerous Stangs. Matt Jacques played very well against Laurier; supplying offense from the rear and he and Andy Zulyniak (1 goal, 4 assists) will be counted on to score from the backline.
Jordan C. Smith (4 assists), Mitch Maunu, Drew Kivell, and Pierre-Marc Guillbault will need to work hard to shut down the Stangs offense while running the Lakehead counter-attack. Freshman Guillbault also put up some offense last weekend vs. Laurier; notching two assists to register his first OUA points as a Lakehead player.
A key so far this season for Lakehead is that it seems they may finally have a balanced attack and can get scoring from any of their forward lines. Kriss Hogg (5 goals, 3 assists) continues to show his offensive touch in his freshman season and is tied for the team lead in scoring and is first in goals scored