Three Wolves netted two goals apiece as the Lakehead mens hockey withstood a spirited comeback attempt to beat the Windsor Lancers 8-6, Friday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The win snaps the OUA West fourth-place Wolves brief two-game losing spurt and improves their conference record to 12-5-2. Windsor drops to 7-9-3 and are tied with Brock for seventh place.
Sault Ste. Marie freshmen Matt Caria and Matt Dias, and junior Kris Hogg (Sicamous, British Columbia) were the multi-goal scorers, with blueliner Pierre-Marc Guilbault (St. Julie, Quebec) and freshman Andrew Wilkins (Pickering, Ontario) also snipping for the Wolves.
Six Lancers found the back of the net including freshman forward Kyle Tront (Thunder Bay, Ontario) who played in front of his hometown crowd at the Gardens.
The Lancers stunned Lakehead with a shorthanded goal by Mark Thorburn to open scoring just over five minutes into the first period. Less than thirty seconds later, Dias was hauled down on a partial breakaway and scored on the subsequent penalty shot to tie things at one.
Guilbaults home return follow an stint on the injured list was highlighted by a point shot that found the net at 12:57 on assists from Mark Soares and Victor Anilane.
Windsor responded minutes later on the powerplay on a Matt McCready goal before Dias scored his second of the night at 17:10 to close the first period scoring.
The Wolves looked to have taken control late in the second period when Caria scored twice in less than a minute with Wilkins potted his fourth of the year at 19:06. Seconds later Anger responded for the Lancers to make it a 6-3 game after forty minutes.
Tront opened third period scoring at 1:14 of the final frame followed twenty-four seconds later by captain Kyle Nishizaki to draw Windsor back within one goal.
Hogg and Kyle Lang traded goals for their teams at 15:36 and 16:27, respectively before Hogg added his second an empty-netter to put the game out of reach with thirty-three seconds left.
The Thunderwolves won despite being outshot 52-34 by the Lancers in a free-flowing game with few penalties. Windsor went 1-3 on the powerplay with the Wolves a scoreless 0-3 with the man advantage. Junior netminder Kyle Moir (Calgary) made 46 saves in the win while Lancers counterpart Jim Watt stopped 26 Lakehead shots in the loss.
The two teams will battle it out in the final game of the weekend series, Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. EST.