The No. 3 Lakehead University Thunderwolves welcome the Royal Military College Paladins to the Fort William Gardens for two games this Friday and Saturday nights. Lakehead (6-1-0 OUA, 10-2-0 overall) is coming off a decisive home sweep of the York Lions while RMC (0-8-0 OUA, 3-11-0 overall) is coming off losses to UQTR and Concordia. Lakehead is currently tied for the lead of the OUA Far West Division with Western while RMC is in the cellar of the OUA Mid East Division.
Lakehead comes into the game with the highest scoring offense in the CIS, averaging 6.3 goals a game and are 9th in defense, allowing 2.7 goals per game. The Thunderwolves have the fifth best winning percentage at .857 in regular season play. Lakehead's powerplay is lethal and leads the OUA, scoring on 31.43% of their opportunities. The next best powerplay is Waterloo at 22.22%. As well, the Thunderwolves have the second best penalty kill in the OUA at 93.33%, just after UQTR.
The noisy crowds at Fort William Gardens make the Thunderwolves' home rink a tough place to visit. Lakehead has not lost at the Gardens since Dec. 29th of last year, when they dropped a 4-3 game to Calgary in the round robin portion of the Bell Varsity Cup Tournament. Their home, undefeated streak now stands at 20, and all are wins, with theexceptioinof one tie vs. Alberta on January 4th of 2003.
The Thunderwolves have been getting scoring from all over the line-up, with goals coming from 16 different players. Lakehead has four strong lines that can cause headaches for opposing teams to match up with. The Thunderwolves leading scorers are Jeff Richards with 6 goals and 8 assists, Captain Joel Scherban with 8 goals and 4 assists, Bryan Duce with 4 goals and 6 assists, and rookie Michael Wehrstedt with 3 goals and 5 assists.
This weekend will see the third and fourth meetings between the Paladins and the Thunderwolves with Lakehead having a 2-0 record and outscoring RMC 11-5.
Head Coach Pete Belliveau said his team will not take the Paladins lightly. "We are looking forward to hosting RMC at the Gardens for the first time in our OUA history. This is a hard-working, well-coached team who will be ready to steal 2 or 4 pts from us this weekend. Their strong work ethic will give us two very good games for our fans and it is our last weekend at home before the Christmas break."
This season, the Paladins are having a tough go in the OUA, being winless one third the way into the regular season. Unfortunately, several key players will not be making the trip to Thunder Bay due to injuries, including last season's leading scorer Louis Charland and last season's team MVP Pat McDonald.
The 2003 - 2004 season sees significant change in the RMC hockey program, as the team looks to improve upon its 6-win performance of last year. Although the Paladins lost three players to graduation, including Team Captain Shannon Goudie and Leading Scorer Eric Rheaume, this year's new recruits show great promise.
On Defense, the Paladins are returning all its starters from last year's team and expect to improve upon its defensive play from last year. Key returning defensemen include Matt House (Mississauga, ON), Brent Maurice (Aylmer, QC), Jamie Routledge (Calgary, AB), and Jared Saunders (Springdale, NF).
At Forward, RMC looks to improve greatly on last year's production, as the forward corps is significantly deeper than last year's. Scorer Louis-Michel Charland (Trois-Rivieres, QC) will be aided by 5th year player Mike Clarke (Ottawa, ON), a former Brock Badger, and by 02-03 Top Rookie Pat McDonald (Olds, AB). Also expected to increase their contributions are Matt Maurice (Burlington, ON), Adrian Hartley (Welland, ON), Tyler McTavish (London, ON), and veteran Matt Reid (Fonthill, ON), who looks to improve on his injury-riddled<