The Lakehead Thunderwolves fell to the Windsor Lancers 3-2 in overtime in the third and deciding game of the OUA West Division Semi-finals on Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Much like Fridays game, Lakehead came out in the first period and controlled much of the play, but Windsor goaltender Parker Van Buskirk was strong early on, making some big saves on Jake Carrick and Trevor Gamache, but none bigger than a point-blank save on Matt Caria.
Those saves proved to be huge for the Lancers as Spencer Pommels put one past Wolves goaltender Alex Dupuis after a bad giveaway in the Lakehead zone at 10:19 of the first.
Lakehead answered back while shorthanded at the 3:25 mark of the second period when Andrew Wilkins broke in and put a shot on Van Buskirk who made the initial save, but Wilkins backhanded the rebound over him, tying the game at 1-1.
Shortly after, Windsor regained the lead on a Brett Oliphant shot that took a funny bounce, with the puck hitting Dupuis on the shoulder before crossing the goal line to make it 2-1 for the Lancers.
The Thunderwolves put a lot of pressure on the Lancers for the remainder of the period, but it seemed as if luck was on Van Buskirks side in the middle stanza.
TheWolvescame out hard in the third period, realizing thatthe season was on the line. The hard work paid off at 7:09 when Trevor Gamache picked up a rebound on a nice shot from the pointby Luke Maw, tying the game at 2-2. Mike Hammond was credited with the second assist.
The Wolves applied a tremendous amount of pressure on the Windsor goal late in the third, but couldnt solve Van Buskirk, and the game was extended into overtime.
After a lot of scoring chances and big saves by both goalies, the Lancers finally ended the game when Scott Todd blasted a high shot past Dupuis with only 27 seconds left in the first overtime period to send Windsor to the West Division Finals.
The Molson 3 Stars of the game were:
1st- Parker Van Buskirk, Windsor
2nd- Alex Dupuis, Lakehead
3rd- Scott Todd, Windsor