It was a historic night in Guelph for the No. 10 Lakehead Thunderwolves as they opened up their OUA playoff campaign with a tight 4-3 win over the Guelph Gryphons to take game one of their first round best-of-three series. Lakehead was led by Joel Scherban and Jeff Richards who each notched a goal and two assists. With Scherban's three point night, he becomes the first Thunderwolves player to reach the 200 overall career points plateau.
Lakehead's other goals came from Dene Poulin and Austin Wycisk while Darrel Cowan, Jesse Pyatt, and Scott Rozendal replied for the Gryphons. Guelph netminder, and Thunder Bay native, Ken Ritson was sharp in the Gryphons' goal, turning aside 32 of 36 Lakehead shots while Lakehead netminder Chris Whitley stopped 27 of 30 Guelph shots. Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau also recorded his 100th overall win as Thunderwolves Head Coach in only his fourth season.
The win gives Lakehead an overall OUA record of 16-8-1 OUA record (24-15-0-1 overall) while Guelph is 8-12-4-1 in OUA play and 10-15-4-1 overall. Game Two will be played Friday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay; while Game Three will be played Saturday night at the Gardens if necessary. Game times in Thunder Bay are 7:30 pm EST.
SCORING SUMMARY
Period #1
Lakehead - Poulin (19, 9) - pp 06:22
Period #2
Lakehead - Richards ( ) - reg 00:52
Lakehead - Scherban (22 ) - reg 11:02
Period #3
Guelph - Cowan (14, 12) - reg 03:53
Guelph - Pyatt (25, 22) - reg 05:01
Lakehead - Wycisk (19, 9) - reg 10:40
Guelph - Rozendal (11, 14) - reg 19:55
GOALS BY PERIOD
1 2 3 Total
Guelph 0 0 3 3
Lakehead 1 2 1 4
SHOTS BY PERIOD
1 2 3 Total
Guelph 9 8 13 30
Lakehead 13 13 10 36
PENALTIES SUMMARY
Period #1
Guelph - MacArthur (Sp) , 2 min , 04:53
Guelph - MacArthur (Sp) , 2 min , 04:53
Guelph - Cook (Sl) , 2 min , 07:54
Lakehead - Lodge (Hs) , 2 min , 12:17
Lakehead - Self (Sl) , 2 min , 13:27
Period #2
Guelph - Cook (Cc) , 2 min , 06:51
Guelph - McFarlane (Sl) , 2 min , 12:09
Period #3
Lakehead - Lodge (Int) , 2 min , 13:35