Freshman goalie Alex Dupuis (Thunder Bay, Ontario) stood tall with 34 saves and the Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team took a 1-0 lead in their best-out-of-three games OUA West Division final with a 4-1 win, Wednesday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The win improved Dupuis unblemished playoff record to 5-0 while the Thunderwolves remained undefeated all-time in the playoffs at home against Western.
Lakehead got goals from defensemen Ryan Baird (Thunder Bay) and Jordan Smith (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario) while forwards Shandor Alphonso (Orangeville, Ontario) and Kris Hogg (Sicamous, British Columbia) also tallied as the Wolves and Stangs each had 35 shots.
The Mustangs lone goal came off the stick of Kevin Baker on the powerplay.
Facing a Mustangs team owning home ice advantage for the sixth of six all-time postseason series between the two squads, the Wolves came out guns blazing as Bairds finish came only two minutes in off assists from Andy Hyvarinen (Thunder Bay) and OUA second team all-star Scott Dobben (Drayton, Ontario). The lead expanded late in the period when captain Smith charged in from the point and beat Western goalie Keyvan Hunt from the doorstep on assists from Shandor and Matt Caria (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario).
The fifth-year senior Alphonso added his goal at 13:23 of the second period when a long pass from Pierre-Marc Guilbault (St. Julie, Quebec) sprung him on a partial breakaway and he deked around Hunt to score backhanded.
Western made things interesting in the third period when Baker scored at 7:31 on assists from Scott Aarssen and Keaton Turkiewicz but Lakehead hung on as Hogg sealed the deal on a nice finish from Kalvin Sagert (Abbotsford, British Columbia) and Dupuis.
The action shifts to London, Ontario for game two on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. EST, and again the following night for game three, if necessary.