Led by freshman Cody Alcocks four-goal outburst, the Lakehead Thunderwolves crushed the Ryerson Rams 7-0 to take game #1 in the best-of-three OUA West Division semi-finals at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto on Wednesday night.
Lakehead opened the scoring 12:47 into the first period when Alcock converted on a beautiful cross-ice pass from Mike Hammond while the Wolves were on a 5-on-3 power play. Mike Quesnele recorded the second assist on the goal.
Four minutes later, Alcock beat Ryerson netminder Troy Passingham from in-close to make it 2-0 for the Wolves, with the assists going to Mike Quesnele and Andrew Wilkins.
The Wolves seemed to have more jump than the Rams in the first twenty minutes and that trend continued throughout the game, although Lakehead goalie Jeff Bosch made some good saves to keep Ryerson off the scoreboard.
Lakehead has been dangerous when short-handed all season, and the Wolves penalty killing unit struck again at 14:49 of the second period when Mike Hammond scored after being set up by Mike Quesnele and Kelin Ainsworth.
Alcock completed his hat-trick when he picked up Wilkins rebound and fired the puck between Passinghams legs at 17:42.
Ryan Magill continued the Lakehead onslaught by scoring off a feed from Carson Dubchak in the final minute of the period to make it 5-0 for the Wolves heading into the third.
Lakehead kept its foot on the gas in the final frame, and at the 5:10 mark Alcock scored his fourth goal of the night with a low slapper that beat Rams goaltender Steve Gleeson, who had replaced Passingham in the Ryerson goal to start the third period.
Dubchak rounded out the scoring at 7-0 for Lakehead when he fired the puck high on Gleesons glove side after receiving a nice pass from David Quesnele on a two-on-one opportunity at 11:45.
Bosch was solid in the Wolves goal all night, making 45 stops to record the shutout.
The series will shift to Lakehead for game #2 on Friday night at the Fort William Gardens. If necessary, game #3 will be also be played in Thunder Bay Saturday evening.
Thunder Bays Haley Irwin, now a two-time Olympic gold medalist in womens hockey, will be on hand to perform the ceremonial face-off before the game on Friday night.