The Lakehead Thunderwolves downed the Laurentian Voyageurs 4-1 before a crowd of 1,821 at the Fort William Gardens on Friday night.
Lakehead’s Daniel Del Paggio opened the scoring at 11:52 of the first period on wrister from a sharp angle that eluded Laurentian goalie Michael Giugovaz, with Brennen Dubchak and John Masters getting the assists.
Caleb Boman’s blast from the top of the face-off circle slipped between Giugovaz’s pads at 16:11 to put the Wolves up by two, with helpers going to Del Paggio and Chase Stewart, who was making his first appearance in a Lakehead uniform.
The Thunderwolves 2-0 lead held up after 40 minutes of play as Devin Green looked very sharp in the Lakehead net, coming up with several key saves for the Wolves.
Laurentian’s Zach Wilkie broke Green’s shutout bid 1:40 into the third period when he pounced on a rebound and fired the puck low on the glove side.
Patrick Murphy’s shot from the slot sailed over Giugovaz’s shoulder at 9:53 while the Wolves were on the power play to restore Lakehead’s two-goal cushion, with Dexter Kuczek and Joseph Leonidas assisting.
Kuczek added an empty netter after receiving a feed from Cooper Leitch to close out the scoring with just 14 seconds remaining in the contest.
Total shots on goal in the game were 40-33 in Lakehead’s favor.
For the night, the Thunderwolves were 1-for-6 with the man-advantage, while the Voyageurs went 0-for-3.
The Molson Three Stars of the game were:
- Daniel Del Paggio, Lakehead
- Devin Green, Lakehead
- Chase Stewart, Lakehead
The Wolves will be out for a series sweep when they square off against the Voyageurs again tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m.