The Lakehead Thunderwolves and the No. 5 Western Mustangs battled it out Friday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay but it was the Stangs coming out on top by a 3-2 score in the very hard fought and exciting game.
The loss puts Lakehead at 8-5-2 in OUA play (12-11-4 overall) while the first place Stangs are now 14-1-1 in OUA action and 19-6-1 overall. Westerns goals came from Steve Benedetti, Mike Rice, and Chris Rowan while Joel Scherban and Peter Cava replied for Lakehead. Goaltending was in the forefront on the night as Westerns Scott Dickie and Lakeheads Grant McCune both made a lot of fantastic saves in each period to keep game close. Lakehead outshot Western 39-37 on the night.
The Wolves had the edge in play in the first and opened the scoring at 7:36 when Cava tucked the puck under Dickie; assisted by Mike Jacobsen and Matt Jacques. The Stangs tied it when a shot by Steve Benedetti deflected past Lakeheads McCuen at 16:37, assisted by Kyle Piwowarczyk and Matt Manias. Lakehead outshot Western 17-8 in the first.
The second period the Stangs picked it up and kept Lakeheads McCune busy including excellent saves of Westerns Jamie Chamberlain and Matt Bannan. Westerns Dickie also made a great stop off Lakeheads Murray Magill. Western outshot Lakehead 16-9 in the third.
The third period was very fast and very exciting with both teams going for the win. Western made it 2-1 at 6:47 on the powerplay when Rice made a great toe drag move on a Lakehead d-man and snapped the puck past McCune. Assists went to Chamberlain and Bannan. Western made it 3-1 at 17:37 when Chris Rowan cut against the grain and used a Lakehead defender as a screen and beat McCune high with assists going to Chamberlain and Chris Tetro.
It looked like the end for the Wolves but Western took a penalty with with 55 seconds left and Lakehead pulled McCune for the extra attacker. Lakehead buzzed the Western goal and the Stangs took another minor and Lakehead was now playing 6-on-3. Lakeheads Matt Jacques fired a hard shot from the point that was deflected past Dickie by Scherban at 19:34, with the other assist going to Mike Jacobsen. The Wolves put McCune back in the goal and would still have the one man advantage for the final 26 seconds and they attacked the Western goal but couldnt beat Dickie as the horn went. Shots were even at 13 in the final period.
The Three Stars were:
1)Western: Scott Dickie
2)Lakehead: Grant McCune
3)Western: Mike Rice
The two teams take to the ice again at 2:00 pm EST at the Gardens on Saturday and the game can be seen nationally on Star Choice Satellite TV Channel 314 (Thunder Bay Television CTV) with Bryan Wyatt and Jonas Gilbart calling all the action.