Jason Langes pair of goals led the way as the Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team defeated the No. 4 Western Mustangs 3-0 Saturday night at the Thomson Arena in London, Ontario giving the Wolves a 2-1 OUA Quarter Final series win. The Thunderwolves now advance to the OUA Semi-Finals against either Laurier or Waterloo.
Brad Priestlay scored Lakeheads other goal while Shandor Alphonso added two assists. Lakehead netminder Chris Whitley turned aside 30 Western shots to earn the shutout in a game that saw the Wolves outshoot the Stangs 37-30. The game saw few penalties; four to the Wolves and one to the Stangs.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said his team played as one. That was this teams best victory in its five years. Everybody brought something to the table and each guy executed the game plan perfectly. Im so happy for these guys, they played a great game!
The game saw an exciting first period featuring good chances by both teams and strong netminding by Whitley and Western starter Scott Dickie but neither team could score. Lakehead turned it on in the second and Lange opened the scoring at 3:09 when he fired a quick shot from the left circle that beat Dickie with the assists going to Alphonso and Mike Jacobsen. The Wolves kept up the pressure and were rewarded when Priestlay knocked it in at 6:40. Lange made it 3-0 Lakehead at 12:38, again assisted by Alphonso. The Stangs pulled Dickie in favour of Brad Topping. The second saw Western also have good chances but Whitley made some big saves early against Sal Peralta and Mike Rice and a good stop lat in the period against Ryan Hare.
Topping save another goal when he pounced on a rolling puck on the Western goal line at the 4:00 mark of the third and followed with a good save off Lakeheads Mark Robinson soon after. Lakehead played more conservatively in the third and focussed on defense trying to control Westerns powerful offense and looking for a quick counter-attack. Lakeheads Whitley had to make two good saves off Westerns Rice and Piwowarczyk at 6:30. The Wolves took a penalty at 7:46 and Western came very close when Whitley made a good save but the puck rolled across the Lakehead goal line but no Western players could jump on the loose puck to knock it in.
Western came close a minute later when Jamie Chamberlain broke in and fired a hard backhander that was stopped nicely by Whitley. Lakeheads Captain Joel Scherban came close soon after when he twice missed knocking the puck into an empty Westrern cage. Chamberlain tried a wraparound at 17:00 but was again denied by Whitley. Lakeheads Brad Priestlay then fired a hard shot that was stopped by Westerns Topping. The final two minutes saw Lakehead bottle up play in the neutral zone to end the game.
The Wolves begin OUA Semi Final play at home at the Fort William Gardens Wednesday at 7:30 pm. That game will be videowebcast live on a pay-per-view basis with ordering info available on www.thunderwolveshockey.com or at http://www.news-cast.com/events/index.html. Viewers will need hi speed internet and a Microsoft Media Player to watch the game.