Turnabout was fair play as Lakehead goalie Chris Whitley put on a show to lead the No. 3 Lakehead Thunderwolves to a hard-fought 3-2 win over the Laurier Golden Hawks Saturday night before 3735 fans at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay. The Wolves win evens the series at one game apiece in the best-of-three OUA West semifinal series.
In Lauriers 5-4 win on Thursday in Waterloo; it was Hawks netminder Jeff MacDougald who carried his squad to the victory while Saturday it was Whitley who put on the show; making 34 saves; many of them of the spectacular variety. MacDougald also made a number of excellent saves in the Laurier goal; turning aside 27 Lakehead shots.
The series deciding Game Three will go Sunday night at the Gardens with face off at 7:30 pm EST. The game will be videowebcast live on NewscastSports.com. Ordering info is available at http://events.news-cast.com/events/Lakehead and viewers will need hi-speed internet and Windows Media Player to watch the vidcasts.
Lakehead is now 1-1 in OUA playoff action (24-5-1 OUA overall) while Laurier is now 3-2 in the OUA playoffs (19-11-3 OUA overall).
Brock McPherson paced the Wolves offensively with a goal and an assist while Mark Soares and Kris Hogg added the other Lakehead markers. Craig Voakes and Nick Vergeer had a goal and an assist each for the Hawks.
Lakehead was 1-4 on the powerplay while Laurier was 0-9; in a game that saw the Hawks have many opportunities with the man advantage. Shots in the game were 36-30 Laurier on the night. Both teams rang a post on the night as well.
Lakehead came out hard in the first and dominated play for most of the period; building up a 3-0 lead after one period of play. Lakeheads first goal came on the powerplay at 9:14 when McPherson fired a rocket that beat MacDougald top shelf. The assists went to Pierre-Marc Guilbault and Jordan C. Smith. The Wolves scored right after at 10:19 when Soares jumped on the loose puck and knocked it past MacDougald; assisted by McPherson. Finally, it was 3-0 at 17:51 when Kris Hogg scored a perfect tip in goal with one hand on his stick; directing in a perfect pass from Andrew Brown. The other assist went to Andy Zulyniak. Shots on goal in the first were 15-10 Lakehead.
In the second it seemed that the Wolves were content to sit on the lead and the Hawks turned up their play a notch and took the game to Lakehead. Whitley began to show that he was on his game; making a number of good saves in the period; including one of his mask. However, the Hawks hard word and strong forecheck was rewarded at 11:19 when Nick Vergeer scored on a rocket of his own; beating Lakeheads Whitley top shelf left side with a hard slap shot. The assists went to Craig Voakes and Luke Girard. Although the Hawks controlled play for the most part; play was often disorganized by both teams and when the Hawks broke through; Whitley was there to make the save. Laurier outshot Lakehead 15-4 in the second.
The third was a more even stanza; but it was the Hawks who looked a little quicker on their skates for more of the period. Lakehead then had a great opportunity to build on their one goal margin when Tobias Whelan was awarded a penalty shot. Whelan beat MacDougald with a deke but then MacDougald fired his trailing leg out to deny Whelan with his skate for a huge save. Right after that, a costly Lakehead giveaway led to Craig Voakes bringing the Hawks within one at 8:39; assisted by Vergeer.
Both netminders made good saves in this period; with Whitley saving another off his mask. Then Lakehead took an ill-conceived four minute minor with just under two minutes left; giving the Hawks the chance to tie the game. However, Whitley made three big stops during the ensuing Laurier powerplay. The Hawks pulled their goalie with just under a minute left but Whitley closed the<