The Lakehead Thunderwolves swept their weekend series over the visiting Les Patriotes de la Universite du Quebec a Trois Rivieres in OUA non-conference play in Thunder Bay Saturday night by defeating UQTR 4-2.
The Thunderwolves started out slow, and UQTR came to play this night. The first period was a very hard hitting affair with both teams getting good scoring opportunities. UQTR's Alexandre Piche scored the period's lone goal at 5:04, assisted by Jean Malette and Jean-Phillippe Pare. Both Lakehead's Grant McCune and UQTR''s Jean-Phillippe Piche made some great saves in the period, and Lakehead's Matt Kenny and Jason Lange delivered some thunderous hits.
Lakehead''s Mike Jacobsen scored quickly in the second period, on a powerplay goal at the 0:16 mark, assisted by Tyler Williamson and Jason Lange. The second period saw great two-way hockey, with both goaltenders playing strong between the pipes. Lakehead took the lead on a goal by Jason Lange at the 18:03 mark. Lange's goal was a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play set up by Craig Priestlay and Robert Hillier.
The third period saw UQTR even up the score at the 7:01 mark on a powerplay goal by Jean-Phillipe Pare, assisted by Alexandre Tremblay and Jerome Tremblay. Earlier, Lakehead's McCune had robbed Pare on a point blank shot from the front of the net. Lakehead had a big edge in play in the third, with UQTR's Piche making a lot of fine saves. Lakehead took the lead at the 12:20 mark, when Murray Magill pounced on a rebound from a hard point shot from Mike Jacobsen. UQTR pulled its goaltender to try to get the equalizer, but Lakehead Captain Joel Scherban notched an unassisted empty netter to put the game away.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau thought his team had a poor start Saturday night, but improved as the game went on.
"We didn't play as well as we did last night, we had a bad first period. But, we answered the bell in the second and scored two goals, and then we came through in the third with Magill's big goal. I was happy with the third period effort, it was typical playoff hockey, even though it's this early in the season."
The Three Stars, as selected by TBT/CKPR Sports Director Bryan Wyatt, were:
1) Lakehead's Jason Lange
2) UQTR's Alexandre Piche
3) Lakehead's Mike Jacobsen
My T-Wolves Shout Outs go to Shawn Perring for being a defensive rock out there just like Friday night, Grant McCune for making some tasty saves, and Jason Lange and Matt Kenny for making the UQTR players keep their heads up. The Thunderwolves outshot UQTR 37-20. Attendance at the game was 2436.
The Thunderwolves travel to Duluth, Minnesota Wednesday to take on the NCAA Divison 1 University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. This will be Lakehead's last non-conference game before opening regular OUA play against defending CIS champions University of Western Ontario Mustangs next weekend in Thunder Bay.