The Lakehead Thunderwolves dropped a 5-2 decision to the Brock Badgers before 1900 fans at the Fort William Gardens on a frigid Friday night in Thunder Bay, with most of the scoring coming in a wild first period.
Billy Jenkins gave Lakehead an early lead when he knocked home a rebound on a shot that took a funny bounce off the blocker of Brock goalie Clint Windsor 7:48 into the game, with the assists going to Sam Schutt and Grant Valiquette.
Braden Pears replied for Brock at the ten-minute mark by shoveling a rebound past Wolves netminder Devin Green, and then Adam Lloyd gave the Badgers the lead 32 seconds later.
Lakehead responded swiftly when Schutt walked in on Windsor and fired a hard wrister that beat him on the blocker side to tie the game at 2-2.
Lloyd got his second goal of the period when he flipped the puck over a sprawled Devin Green at 13:30, and Ryan Purvis pounced on a rebound after a nice initial save late in the period to put Brock up 4-2 after 20 minutes.
Lakehead controlled most of the play in a scoreless middle frame, outshooting the Badgers 16-8.
The third period was more of the same, but the Wolves were unable to get anything past Windsor and Brody Silks empty-netter with 1:45 remaining iced the game for Brock.
Total shots on goal were 44-25 in favor of the Thunderwolves.
Neither team was able to score on the power play, with both sides going 0-for-5.
The Molson three stars of the game were:
1.Adam Lloyd, Brock
2.Sam Schutt, Lakehead
3.Clint Windsor, Brock
The Wolves and Badgers will face off again tomorrow night at the Fort William Gardens beginning at 7:00 p.m.