Down 3-1 through one period, the Lakehead Thunderwolves needed to pick up their play to avoid OUA playoff elimination at the hands of the York Lions. Seven straight goals did the trick as the Wolves rallied for a 9-5 Friday night win at the Fort Williams Gardens in Thunder Bay to force a third and deciding game in their best-out-of three opening round divisional series with the Lions. That game will go Saturday night, 7:30 p.m. EST at the Gardens.
Seniors Marks Soares (Burnaby, British Columbia) and captain Jordan Smith (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario) each scored a pair of goals to lead the Thunderwolves as LU and York combined to set a Lakehead playoff record for most goals in a game with 14. Soares added two assists for the four-point night while Dan Speer (Thunder Bay), Brock McPherson (Brampton, Ontario), Arron Alphonso (Orangeville, Ontario), Matt Caria (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario) and Ryan McDonald (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan) also found the back of the net.
Jesse Grespan, Matt Restoule, JK Gill, Chris Jones, and Jess Messier each scored for York which chased the Thunderwolves starting goalie Kyle Moir (Calgary) from the net with three goals on nine shots in the opening 8:36 of the first period. Backup Alex Dupuis (Thunder Bay) played well from there on out with 20 saves on 22 shots to spark LU.
Lakehead dominated the shots department 58-31 and sent Yorks starter Dave Davenport packing in the third period with the score 8-3 Thunderwolves. David Blair allowed one goal in relief.
Special teams were a major factor in the Packs win as they scored used a 5-on-3 advantage to tie the game 3-3 on Smiths first goal at 8:35 of the second period followed ten seconds later by McPhersons go-ahead powerplay finish on a two-on-one break with Scott Dobben. From there, the game was never in doubt as Lakehead went on to go up by as many as five goals down the home stretch.