The Lakehead Thunderwolves lost 7-2 to the Alberta Golden Bears on Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay in front of a crowd of 2,724.
In a high-scoring opening period, Alberta's Sean Ringrosegot on the board first at 4:22 on a shot that deflected off of Lakehead defenceman Mike Quesneles foot and past netminder Justin McDonald.
Jordan Hickmott increased the Golden Bears lead to 2-0 less than a minute later when he walked in and ripped a nice shot past McDonald.
Shortly after, Lakehead cut the Alberta lead in half on a delayed penalty call when Jake Carrick pounced on a rebound off a Kelin Ainsworth shot. The other assist was credited to Quesnele.
Ryan Magill evened things up at 2-2 at 9:46 on a hard slap-shot that beat Alberta goaltender Luke Siemens.
Alberta quickly responded and pulled out to a 4-2 lead on goals by Zack Dailey and Johnny Lazo before heading into the first intermission.
There were several big hits in the second period, highlighted by a huge open ice hit by Lakehead freshman defenseman Nathan Bruyere.
Alberta increased its lead to 5-2 when a streaking Thomas Carr fired a hard wrist shot past McDonald for the only goal of the middle stanza.
In the third period, Alberta padded its lead to 6-2 on a shot from Levko Koper.
The Golden Bears continued the onslaught, and with Carrick in the box serving a five-minute major for crosschecking, Hickmotts shot from the point found the back of the net.
The Molson Three Stars of the game were:
1.Sean Ringrose, Alberta
2.Jordan Rowley, Alberta
3.Ryan Magill, Lakehead
Lakehead hits the road next week to take on the Laurentian Voyageurs in Sudbury this Thursday and Friday night.