The Lakehead Thunderwolves opened their CIS hockeyseason with a hard-fought 6-3 loss to UQTR in Trois Rivieres, Quebec on Friday night. Lakehead outshot Les Patriotes 45-29 but Patriotes netminder Dany Dallaire, who was chosen First Star on the night, stole the show with an excellent effort between the pipes. The loss puts Lakehead's record at 0-1 overall and UQTR's at 1-0.
Lakehead played a hard-hitting style that helped make this early non-conference game a very exciting affair for the fans in Trois-Rivieres. The local newspaper in Trois-Rivieres commented that they hadn't been such an exciting early season game before. Lakehead's scoring came from Chris Shaffer, Steve Rawski, and Tobias Whelan while Sylvan Nadeau led UQTR with two goals.
Far from being disappointed with the result, Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau was very happy with his team's effort. "That was the best early season game we've played in our four years. I really liked what I saw because the team played with a lot of grit and a lot of heart. If not for the great play of Dallaire in their goal, I think the result would have been different but I will take a lot of positives from the game and I'm looking forward to see this team in action against McGill."
Lakehead plays the second game of its Far East Tour Saturday night in Montreal against the McGill Redmen.