The Lakehead Thunderwolves beat the Laurier Golden Hawks 5-1 Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, ON.
Lakehead came out determined to take the body in the opening minutes of the game. But after a breakdown in the neutral zone, Laurier's Ryan Bellows fired a shot that found its way past Thunderwolves goaltender Kyle Moir at 2:32 of the first. The goal seemed to take the wind out of the sails for Lakehead as they played on their heels for the next few minutes. Moir came up with some nice saves to keep the Wolves within one. Andrew Wilkins and Brock McPherson displayed some courageous penalty killing after Kalvin Sagert was whistled for checking from behind. Their play on the penalty kill proved to be huge for the Thunderwolves, as moments after the penalty expired, Andy Hyvarinen found a loose puck in front and put it past Laurier goaltender Ryan Daniels at 10:56 to tie the game at 1-1.
Both teams had some chances early on in the second period and the physical play continued. Moir kept Lakehead in the game with some big saves, including one in which Laurier broke in on a partial 3-on-1 shorthanded. The Thunderwolves had a flurry of chances throughout the period, but Laurier's Daniels stood tall until Kris Hogg found the puck in front of the net and put it past him at 15:45 to put the Wolves in front 2-1. The goal was made possible by a nice effort from Brock McPherson to keep the puck in the zone at the blueline.
Lakehead was all over Laurier to start the third period, throwing everything they could on net, and hitting everything with a white jersey on. Lakehead increased their lead to 3-1 at 4:21 after Matt Caria converted on a nice give-and-go with Adam Sergerie. Brock McPherson then put the puck past Daniels on the power play at 11:23 of the third, to make the score 4-1 Lakehead. Then, at the 17:00 mark, Ryan McDonald glided out in front of the net and put a backhander past Daniels to pad Lakehead's lead and close out the scoring at 5-1 for the Wolves.
The Molson 3 Stars of the game were:
1.Kris Hogg Lakehead
2.Andrew Wilkins Lakehead
3.Mitch Maunu - Lakehead
The Thunderwolves will go on the road next weekend for a pair of games at Ontario Tech.