Captain Joel Scherban and goaltender Grant McCune led their No. 5 Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team to a 4-0 Queen's Cup shutout win over the No. 2 McGill Redmen before 3735 noisy fans at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario Saturday night. Scherban scored a goal and added two assists while McCune made a number of excellent saves to preserve the shutout and the victory.
Scherban was named the winner of the Jack Kennedy Memorial Award as the championship game MVP. Lakeheads other goals came from Tobias Whelan, Mike Jacobsen (also an assist), and Matt Jacques. McGill outshot Lakehead 25-16 in the penalty filled affair; which saw 11 minor penalties and a 10 minute misconduct assessed to the Wolves and 12 minor penalties to the Redmen.
The championship was the first for the five year old Thunderwolves program and the home win extended Lakeheads unbeaten home playoff streak to 13-0 in five seasons.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau was very proud of his team. Im very happy for the boys, for the fifth year seniors, for Grant McCune, and very happy for our fans; who were really great tonight! It took us five years to win but we did it and were very happy but we have a lot of work to do to prepare for the nationals. Id also like to congratulate Coach Martell and the Laurier Golden Hawks for going to Trois Rivieres and earning a nationals berth with their big win over UQTR.
The first period saw Lakehead have a slight edge in play and McGills star netminder Mathieu Poitras made a good early save off the Wolves Mike Wehrstedt. McCune countered with a good stop at 3:55 off Redmen leading scorer Shawn Shewchuk. Dan Speer of the Wolves delivered the first of his many hits in the game when he cleanly hit McGills Benoit Martin open ice at 4:30. McCune had to make a big sprawling pad save off Shewchuk again at 12:10; as the McGill star couldnt lift the puck over the Lakehead netminder.
Poitras then made a nice stop off a deflection by the Wolves Andrew Brown. McGill went on a 5-on-3 and McCune robbed Shewchuk with a great cross crease sliding save. Lakeheads Whelan opened the scoring at 18:58 when he beat a McGill d-man with an inside/outside move and then fired a ripping backhander that beat Poitras short side high. Lakehead outshot McGill 8-6 in the first.
The Wolves took advantage of their powerplay opportunities in the second; scoring their next three with the man advantage. The period opened with a great save by McCune to rob Sam Bloom at 1:42. The Wolves then went on the powerplay and Jacobsen fired a rocket at 4:51 that beat a screened Poitras; with the assist going to Scherban. McGill then went on the powerplay and this was perhaps the turning point of the game. The Redmens Charles Gauthier had a wide open cage and then hit the post and then Marko Kovacevic missed a empty net when he fired wide.
The Wolves then had the man advantage and Scherban beat Poitras at 9:31 when he fired a shot from the deep corner that fooled the McGill netminder. Assists went to Brad Priestlay and Mike Jacobsen. The Wolves got their final tally at 11:16; again on the powerplay when Matt Jacques knocked in a rebound, converting some hard work by Wehrstedt and Scherban. McGill then had another powerplay and McCune got his right pad on a shot by Bloom that then deflected of the right post at 16:00 and then the Lakehead goalie followed with a good stop off Gauthier at 16:20.
Shots were 11-5 McGill in the second.
Lakehead began the penalty parade in the third but their PK unit played very well and McCune was exceptional in the net. He made a series of saves but the best was a fantastic save off a point blast cannon by McGills Mathieu Leclerc at 10:27. Leclerc then rang the post at 15:20. Although often in the penalty box, the Wolves<