The Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team dropped their final game of the regular season with a 4-2 loss to the No. 5 Western Mustangs at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario. The loss gave the Stangs the home sweep with two wins in two days by 4-2 margins. Lakehead ends the regular season with a 13-9-2 OUA mark (17-15-4 overall) while Western finishes at 21-2-1 in conference play (26-7-1 overall).
Lakeheads goals came from Erik Lodge and Tobias Whelan. Sal Peralta led the Mustangs with a pair of goals while Mike Rice and Matt Bannan notched singles. The Wolves played without Jeff Richards who was injured on Saturday night and his status for the playoffs has not been reported.
Lakehead jumped out to the lead early in the first on a hard shot by Tobias Whelan but the Mustangs tied it 30 seconds later and then took a lead that they never relinquished. Lakehead played a solid game and outshot Western32-26 but Western goaltender Brad Toppingwas up to the task and was named the games first star for his effort.
Lakehead begins OUA first round playoff action this Wednesday night at 7:00 pm in Toronto against another familiar postseason opponent; the York Lions. 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.