The Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team dropped the first game of their two-game series against the No. 5 Western Mustangs by a 4-2 decision Saturday night at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario. The loss means that Lakehead will play York in the opening round of the OUA playoffs with Game 1 likely on Wednesday night in Toronto and Games 2 and 3, if necessary, in Thunder Bay next Friday and Saturday.
Lakehead now has a 13-8-2 OUA mark (17-14-4 overall) while Western is 20-2-1 in conference play (25-7-1 overall). Two Lakehead turnovers in their own end gave Western a 2-0 lead and though the Wolves cut it to 2-1 late in the first; Western played a very strong second period and scored two goals to ensure the win.
Lakeheads goals came from Joel Scherban and Craig Priestlay while Mike Rice, Jason Ertl, Sal Peralta, and Chris Rowan scored for the Mustangs. The Wolves had good scoring chances in the game but Western goalie Scott Dickie was solid; stopping 29 Lakehead shots as the Wolves outshot the Stangs 31-24.
The two teams hit the ice at the John Labatt Centre on Sunday at 2:00 pm and the game can be heard live in Thunder Bay on 580 CKPR AM radio and online at www.ckpr.am with Bryan Wyatt calling all the action.