The injury depleted Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team were held to a 3-3 OT tie in a very rugged match against the hard working RMC Paladins Saturday night at the Constantine Arena in Kingston, Ontario. The result puts the Thunderwolves OUA record at 6-3-1 (10-6-3 overall) and the Cadets at 4-4-3 in conference play (6-6-3 overall). Lakeheads goals came from Jeff Richards, Mike Jacobsen, and Murray Magill while Paul Bradley, Roman Srutek, and Pat Middlebury scored for the Paladins.
Goaltender Blair Robertson was a pillar in goal for RMC turning aside 52 Lakehead shots and special teams were also key as the Paladins scored once on the powerplay and twice shorthanded. Lakehead dominated play most of the game and outshot RMC 55-25.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said his team gave a strong effort under challenging conditions. I credit our guys for a great effort in a very rough game. If NHL rules were in effect tonight, we would have been on the powerplay for 60 minutes. I give full marks to their goaltender who was fantastic and their penalty kill was strong. We took three out of four points and well have to move on from here.
Play was fairly even early in the early going. RMCs Luke Pierce came close at the 5:00 mark when his shot was smothered by Lakehead netminder Chris Whitley. Lakehead then put on the pressure and Jason Lange just missed a deflection at the 8:00 mark. The Wolves went on the powerplay at 10:35 and they pressured RMC netminder Blair Robertson who came up with a series of good saves to keep the score even.
Lakehead went on the man advantage again at 15:31 and the Wolves Shandor Alphonso was the only one to get a good shot off; which was handled well by Robertson. RMC took another minor with 35 seconds left but the Wolves couldnt beat Robertson. However, Lakehead would start the second with the man advantage.
Lakehead pressured hard to start the second and came close during the powerplay but sides evened up. However, the Wolves got on the board soon after when Andrew Brown fired a hard shot that was kicked out by Robertson but Jeff Richards jumped on the rebound and tucked the puck past the Paladins netminder at 1:58. The other assist went to Erik Lodge. RMCs Roman Srutek then carried the puck up the ice and fired a hard shot that went just over the Lakehead net. The Wolves then put on furious pressure and Robertson made two good stops off Lakeheads Richards. RMC then applied some pressure of their own and Lakeheads Whitley came up with two stops. The Paladins Dion Lahoda had two good chances with around six minutes left but Whitley was up to the task. The Wolves then went back up the ice and their intense attack forced the Cadets into taking a minor at 8:23. RMCs Robertson made two more good saves off Lakeheads Richards.
Robertson followed with another big stop of the Wolves Peter Cava. Richards then fired a hard shot that went off the goal post and deflected into the pads of Robertson. Lakehead continued to fire the puck at the RMC goal and their attack forced RMC to take another minor. The Wolves kept shooting but couldnt solve Robertson and then RMCs Paul Bradley carried the puck down the left side and beat Lakeheads Whitley with a high shot for a shorthanded tally at 12:02 to tie the score at one each. The assist went to Tyler McTavish. This goal energized the Paladins and they began to play better. RMCs Bradley came close with four minutes left when he fired a hard wrist shot that was stopped nicely by Whitley. Lakehead drew a minor at 16:05 and Roman Srutek made it count at 17:14 to give the Paladins the 2-1 lead. Assists went to Bradley and Nick Cregan. Lakehead took another minor at 17:41 and Whitley had to come up big quickly against Srutek 30 seconds into the RMC powerplay.
Play was back and forth for the early going of the third and the Wolves began to put on the pressure a few minutes in. Rob