The Lakehead Thunderwolves were downed 3-1 by the Quebec-Three Rivers Patriotes in front of 2094 fans at the Fort William Gardens on Friday night.
The pace of play was quite quick in the first period with plenty of back-and-forth action and very few whistles. Neither team was able to score as both goalies (Nic Renyard for Lakehead and Sebastien Auger for UQTR) were very sharp.
In contrast to the evenly-played opening period, UQTR dominated the second, outshooting Lakehead 20-2. Antoine Marcoux got the only goal of the middle frame with a short-handed marker at 7:14 to put the Patriotes up 1-0.
Lakehead regrouped and played much better in the third, tying the game just 35 seconds after the opening face-off on a power play goal by Patrick Murphy, with the assists going to Jake Ringuette and Scott Gall.
Three minutes later, Jason Lavellee replied for the Patriotes by firing the puck past Renyard from the top of the crease after receiving a quick pass from the side of the net.
Lavellee added another at 11:35 put UQTR ahead 3-1.
Lakehead pulled Renyard for an extra attacker with two minutes left on the clock and the Wolves had several good scoring chances, but Auger was equal to the task and the Patriotes held on for the win.
Shots on goal for the night were 41-27 in favor of the Patriotes.
Lakehead was 1-for-4 on the power play, while UQTR went 1-for-3.
The Molson Three Stars of the game were:
1. Jason Lavellee, UQTR
2. Nic Renyard, Lakehead
3. Sebastien Auger, UQTR
The Thunderwolves and Patriotes will face-off again tomorrow night beginning at 7:00 PM.