The Lakehead Thunderwolves lost 3-0 to the Manitoba Bisons Thursday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, ON. Manitoba swept the two-game series to win the RBC Varsity Cup Challenge.
Lakehead came out in the first period looking like a totally different team than the one that showed for up the previous evening. The line of Brennan Menard, Andrew Wilkins and Kris Hogg set the tone early with a hard-working shift that brought a couple of nice chances. There were some big hits, but for the most part it was good end-to-end hockey. The defense pairing of Kalvin Sagert and Mike Quesnele made some great defensive plays to keep the Bisons off the board early on. Lakehead had plenty of chances, including Ryan Magill being stopped on a 2-on-1 on a nice feed from Adam Sergerie, but there was no scoring in the first.
The Thunderwolves came out flying in the second period, throwing plenty of hits and putting a lot of pucks on net, but Bisons goaltender Steve Christie stood tall, stopping Wilkins and Hogg on some great chances. Kyle Moir was solid in goal for Lakehead, but couldn't stop a laser shot from Manitoba forward Greg Beller who converted on the power play at 11:20 giving the Bisons a 1-0 lead.
The Wolves came out in the third period much like they did in the first two, firing a lot of pucks on net, but it was Manitoba that got on the board at 2:12 of the third when Nolan Waker found a loose puck and put it past Moir, putting the Bisons in front 2-0. Manitobas Riley Dudar found himself alone in the slot with the puck, and put it past Moir at 13:04 of the third to put the Bisons in front 3-0 to round out the scoring.
Lakehead returns to OUA action at home on January 7th and 8th versus the Windsor Lancers.