The Lakehead Thunderwolves hockey team was upset 8-5 by the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks at the Campus Ice Arena in Oshawa, Ontario Saturday night.
The Wolves found themselves in an early hole that they were never quite able to dig their way out of. Ontario Tech struck quickly and opened up a 3-0 lead just over six minutes into the game on goals by Kevin George, Kyle Wetering and Mike Noyes. Mitch Maunu got Lakehead on the board a couple of minutes later on a goal assisted by Ryan Magill, but the Ridgebacks restored their three-goal lead when Brendan Wise beat Lakehead goalie Jeff Bosch to make it 4-1 for Ontario Tech at the end of the first period.
The Ridgebacks kept pouring it on in the second period, and moved ahead 5-1 on a Jesse Stoughton powerplay marker just over three minutes into the middle stanza. Lakeheads Keith Grondin narrowed the lead to 5-2 on a goal assisted by Riley McIntosh and Mike Hammond midway through the period, but Ontario Techs Wise made it 6-2 for the Ridgebacks with his second goal of the night a few minutes later. Thomas Frazee replied for Lakehead on the powerplay, putting it past Ridgebacks netminder Jacob Rattie on a goal assisted by Hammond and Matt Caria. That ended the scoring in the second period, and the Wolves headed to the dressing room down 6-3 with 20 minutes left to play.
The Thunderwolves powerplay clicked two more times in the third period. Grondin scored his second goal of the game after being set up by Caria at 3:22, and then Jake Carrick fed Andrew Wilkins who blasted it past Rattie to narrow the gap to 6-5 for the Ridgebacks with 6:29 remaining in the period. But the comeback was thwarted when Luke Van Moerkerke scored at the 16:52 mark, and an empty-netter by Stoughton with 40 seconds remainingsealed the deal and gave Ontario Tech the 8-5 upset win. Lakehead outshot the Ridgebacks 51-36 on the game.
The loss was Lakeheads first in the last ten games, but combined with Western Ontarios win over Windsor Saturday, the Wolves now sit two points behind the Mustangs in the race for first place in the OUA West Division.
The Wolves head home for a pair of games next weekend against the Western Ontario Mustangs, where the longtime rivals will continue to wrestle for the division lead. Game times will be 7:30 pm on Friday and Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens.