Despite a heroic effort by goaltender Jeff Bosch, the Lakehead Thunderwolves were edged 4-2 by the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs in front of an announced crowd of 4735 at the Amsoil Arena in Duluth, Minnesota on Monday night.
Lakehead scored the only goal of the first period when Jake Carrick beat Bulldogs goalie Matt McNeely off a nice feed from Mike Hammond just 42 seconds into the game.
Bosch made some timely saves in an opening period which saw the Bulldogs outshoot Lakehead 13-6.
UMD tied the game at 1-1 when Brett Boehm put the puck past Bosch at the 6:23 mark of the second period.
Lakehead regained the lead at the 9:58 mark while the Wolves had a 5-on-3 power play when Nathan Bruyeres point-shot found its way through traffic and between the legs of McNeely. Carson Dubchak was credited with the assist.
Because it was the mid-way mark of the game, Kasimir Kaskisuo then replaced McNeely in the Bulldogs net as planned.
Bosch continued his outstanding play in the Lakehead net, turning aside 24 of the 25 shots he faced in the middle stanza.
Lakehead replied with 11 shots on the Bulldogs goal in the second period.
UMD tied the game at 13:19 of the third period when Austin Farley banged home a rebound while the Bulldogs were on the power play after Wolves forward Trevor Hynnes received a game misconduct for kneeing.
Justin Crandall netted the winner for UMD with a short-handed goal at the 18:25 mark of the third, and then Alex Iafallo iced the game with an empty-netter with just 21 seconds left in the game.
Bosch kept up his brilliant play in the final frame, with the Bulldogs outshooting Lakehead 23-4 in the period for a total of 61-21 on the night.
Lakehead will return home to take on the York Lions in an OUA West Division battle at the Fort William Gardensthis weekend.