The Lakehead Thunderwolves were edged 3-2 in overtime by the Carleton Ravens at the Ice House in Ottawa on Friday night.
Lakehead opened the scoring with just over four minutes left in the first period when Kelin Ainsworth capitalized on an odd-man rush by firing the puck past Carleton goalie Francis Dupuis, with the assists going to Austin McDonald and Dylan Butler.
Justin McDonald made several big saves in the Lakehead goal before Carletons Matt Stanisz finally solved the sophomore netminder at the 12:49 mark of the second period by connecting on hard slapshot. Then with 2:29 left in the middle frame, Michael McNamee put the Ravens up 2-1 heading into the third.
Lakeheads Ryan Magill evened the score at 2-2 with just over three minutes left in regulation, with Mike Hammond and Mitch Fillman picking up the helpers.
With the teams playing four-on-four during the first five minutes of overtime, Justin McDonald made some big stops on Carletons McNamee and Joe Pleckaitis to keep the score deadlocked. But in the second overtime period with the three-on-three format, the Ravens Joey West potted the winner with under a minute remaining after cutting into the middle and beating McDonald on the blocker side.
The Ravens outshot Lakehead 58-29 on the night.
The Wolves picked up a point for the overtime loss, and are now tied for fifth-place in the ten-team West Division with a record of 3-4-2 in OUA play.
Lakehead will look to avenge the loss when the two teams take to the ice again on Saturday night.