The Lakehead Thunderwolves have already claimed the OUA Far West Divisional Title and the No. 1 Seed in the upcomining OUA West playoffs. So, what is the importance of this weekends three road games? The Wolves will be playing for the best record in the OUA; battling with UQTR in the OUA East. The Thunderwolves have never ended regular season play with the best record so this would be quite an achievement; and it would ensure that the Queens Cup Championship game would be played in Thunder Bay if the Wolves can battle through the brutally tough OUA West to make it to the conference title game.
Six teams qualify for the OUA West playoffs; the two divisional winners and the teams with next best four records. So, Lakehead has the No. 1 Seed and Brock, OUA Mid West Champions, are the No. 2 Seed and both teams have a first round playoff bye. The Western Mustangs are seeded #3 and York is seeded #6 so they will begin first round playoff action next week. The other OUA West first round series will see Laurier and Waterloo do battle in an inner-city Kitchener-Waterloo rumble. Lauriers and Waterloos final 3 and 4 seeding wont be determined until after regulation play finishes this weekend.
Lakehead will begin OUA playoff action in the second round and the Wolves will play the lowest ranked winner of the first round while Brock will play the highest ranked winner. Regardless of who the team is; it wont be easy due to the high level of talent and parity found in the OUA West now. All playoff rounds are best-of-three series except for the Queens Cup Championship Game.
Lakehead will begin play on the road on Wednesday, February 20th for one game. They will then return for Game 2 of the series to the Fort William Gardens on Friday, February 22nd. Game 3, if necessary, would be played Saturday, February, 23rd.
Tickets for the first home playoff game go on sale at the Fort William Gardens Box Office (625-2929) on Monday, February 12. Wolves season ticket holder seats will only be held until February 19th. So, come on and support your Wolves in their Quest for the Queens and University Cups as thrilling OUA playoff action returns to the Gardens on February 19th.