The Lakehead Thunderwolves skated hard but were defeated 4-2 by the No. 3 Laurier Golden Hawks Wednesday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay in Game #1 of their OUA quarterfinal playoff series. With the victory, the Hawks take a 1-0 series lead in the best-of-three series and also end Lakeheads six year 14-0 unbeaten mark at home in the postseason.
The Wolves scoring came from Brock McPherson and Matt Maissoneuve. Matt Maccarone paced the Hawks with a goal and an assist. Laurier singles came from Matt Grennier, Jeff Borrows, and James Edgar. Chad Kennedy had a very strong game with 2 assists.
Lakehead outshot Laurier 42-37 on the night and Laurier netminder Jeff MacDougald played a very strong game and made a number of strong saves to preserve the win for the Hawks. Lakehead netminder Chris Whitley also made some good stops on the night.
Lakehead now has a 15-11-3-2 OUA record (18-18-3-2 overall) while the Hawks go to 23-5-1 in conference play and 26-11-1 overall. Lakehead was 0-7 on the powerplay while Laurier was 1-6.
The Molson's Three Stars, as chosen by Leith Dunick ofThunder Bay's Source, were:
1) Laurier: Matt Maccarone
2) Laurier: Chad Kennedy
3)Lakehead: Brock McPherson
Game 2 of the best-of-three series is set for Waterloo on Saturday at 7:30 pm EST and the game can be heard live on 580 CKPR AM Radio in Thunder Bay and online at www.ckpr.com. Game 3, if necessary, is set to face off at 2:00 pm EST Sunday in Waterloo.
Game Summary:
Shots:
Per 1:
Lakehead 15 Laurier 15
Per 2:
Lakehead 18 Laurier 11
Per 3:
Laurier 11 Lakehead 9
Total:
Lakehead 42 Laurier 37
Scoring Summary:
Per 1:
1) Lakehead: 19 seconds: Brock McPherson from Andrew Brown and Mike Wehrstedt
2) Laurier: 19:41: Matt Maccarone
Per 2:
3) Laurier: 9:40: Matt Grennier from Chad Kennedy and Riley Moher
4) Laurier: 10:50: Jeff Borrows from Mark Voakes
5) Lakehead: 15:03: Matt Maissoneuve from Brad Priestlay and Richard Molenaar
6) Laurier: 16:18: James Edgar from Maccarone and Kennedy