The Lakehead Thunderwolves season ended with a 7-4 loss to the Carleton Ravens in the OUA bronze medal game before a packed Ice House in Ottawa on Saturday night.
The game was a wide-open affair, with plenty of scoring opportunities as well as some defensive lapses for both sides.
The Ravens came out flying in the first period, and Damian Cross got Carleton on the scoreboard early when he beat Lakehead netminder Justin McDonald just 1:03 into the game.
Jamie West increased the Ravens lead to 2-0 at the 9:30 mark, and then West scored again at 15:12 to make it 3-0 for Carleton.
The Ravens continued to swarm, and a Mitch Porowski goal with only 46 seconds remaining in the period gave Carleton a commanding 4-0 lead heading into the second stanza.
That lead quickly evaporated as Lakehead rebounded in dramatic fashion with three quick goals to start the second period, beginning with a quick shot by Mike Hammond that fooled Ravens goalie Francis Dupuis low on the blocker side just 1:42 into the period. Kelin Ainsworth and Jake Carrick were credited with the assists.
Less than two minutes later, Keith Grondin scored from the slot after being nicely set up by Cody Alcock and Andrew Wilkins, and then at the 4:01 mark, Alcock fired a blast that beat Dupuis high on the blocker side and suddenly the Ravens lead was cut to only 4-3, prompting Carleton to call a time-out to try to regain some composure.
The action was end-to-end throughout the middle frame, and the Ravens capitalized on a three-on-one break when Porowski scored his second goal of the game by banging home a rebound after a nice initial save by McDonald to make it 5-3 for Carleton at 13:58.
Two minutes later, Carletons Michael McNamee scored on a wrap-around to extend the Ravens lead to 6-3 to round out the scoring in the second period.
3:53 into the third period, Wilkins fed Alcock, who notched his second goal of the game on a tipped shot that eluded Dupuis to narrow the Ravens lead to 6-4.
Still down two goals with just under three minutes to play, Lakehead pulled McDonald for the extra attacker. After hitting two posts on the Wolves empty net, Carletons Corey Durocher finally iced the game for the Ravens when he fired the puck into the empty cage with 47 seconds remaining on the clock, making the final score 7-4 for Carleton.
Total shots on goal were 40-29 in favor of Carleton, and despite allowing six goals, Lakeheads McDonald made quite a few big saves during the game.
By advancing to the OUA West Division finals this season and then playing in the bronze medal game, Lakehead made its deepest playoff run since 2010.