Western goalie Keyvan Hunt was the story as he led his No. 7 Western Mustangs to a 4-2 win over the No. 4 Lakehead Thunderwolves Sunday afternoon at the Thomson Arena in London, Ontario.
Hunt was spectacular in the Stangs goal; especially in the second period when he made numerous fantastic saves to keep Lakehead off the board while his squad scored three goals on only 8 shots. Lakehead outshot Western 38-20 in the match with Hunt turning aside 36 Wolves shots. Saturdays loss stopped Lakeheads winning streak at 11 games; however the Wolves again showed they were Road Warriors; taking two of three of this weekends gruelling three-games-in-three-days road trip and running into a hot goalie Sunday in a game where they outplayed their opponent.
The Wolves end regular season play with a 23-4-1 in OUA conference play (27-8-1 overall); good for 47 points and the best record in the OUA. This is the first time in Lakeheads seven seasons of OUA play that they end regular season play with the best record in the conference. Lakehead will have a first round bye in the OUA West playoffs and will await the results of next weeks first round series between Western vs. York and Laurier vs. Waterloo. Lakehead will begin the second round on the road on Feb. 20th against one of these teams.
The Wolves will be the No. 1 seed in the OUA West playoffs and, if they advance to the Queens Cup Final, in the championship game as well. However, they will have to battle through the brutally competitive OUA West to get to the Queens Cup Final.
The Wolves goals came from Matt Jacques and Mark Soares. Soares SSM line-mates Dan Speer and Brock McPherson picked up assists so Speer ends regular season play with a new Lakehead record 47 points (14 goals, 33 assists), McPherson with 46 points (17 goals, 29 assists) and Soares with 44 points (21 goals, 23 assists). Presently, that puts Speer at No. 1 in OUA scoring, McPherson at No. 2, and Soares tied with Kevin Richardson of Western at No. 3. However the scoring race is not quite yet over as UQTR plays McGill later Sunday and UQTRs Mathieu Gravel is within striking distance with 42 points on 16 goals and 26 assists.
Westerns goals came from Patrick Ouellet, Kevin Richardson, Chris Petrow, and Jeff Martens. Martens also added an assist.
Lakehead was 1-9 on the powerplay while Western was 0-5; however one of their goals came right after the Lakehead player had stepped out of the penalty box.
The first period saw great action both ways with both teams having good scoring opportunities. During a Western powerplay at the midway point; Lakeheads Whitley made what the Western Radio CHRW play by play announcer called the best save he had seen all season when Whitley, while down on his stomach, reached up with his glove to rob Westerns Cody McMullin as McMullin had a wide open net to fire at and a downed goalie. Play got a little rough after a somewhat late hit on Lakeheads Shandor Alphonso. Penalties dominated the rest of the period with neither team able to take advantage. Shots were 8-7 Lakehead in the first.
The story of the second period was the goaltending of Westerns Keyvan Hunt who was on fire in the Stangs net. Lakehead was on the powerplay but couldnt beat Westerns Hunt early in the second and then the Stangs Patrick Ouellette came out of the penalty box and jumped on a clearing pass from netminder Hunt and went in an beat Lakeheads Whitley with a backhander at 4:30. The assist was given to netminder Hunt. Westerns Hunt then made two incredible glove saves to rob Andrew Brown and Tobias Whelan and keep the Stangs in the lead. Brown also hit a post. Lakehead kept up the pressure and Hunt made another good save.
Lakehead kept up a relentless attack but Hunt continued to make a series of fantastic saves as the period progressed; stymieing the Wolves on numerous occasions. Lakehead changed goalies<