The Lakehead Thunderwolves beat the Nipissing Lakers 4-3 in a shootout Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, ON.
There was a much better flow to start the game than there was on Friday night, with Nipissing looking more ready for a battle. Both teams traded some chances early on before a scary moment when Wolves defenseman Pierre Marc Guilbault was involved in a nasty collission at center ice. He left on his own power, but did not return to the game.
The injury seemed to spark Lakehead as they upped the tempo of the game. Brock McPherson scored his sixth goal of the season at 12:55, wiring a shot past Nipissing goaltender Kyle Cantlon. Assists on the goal went to Ryan Magill and Adam Sergerie. Then, after some nice work down low from Trevor Gamache, Devin Welsh found himself with the puck in front of the net, putting it past Cantlon to put the Wolves up 2-0. Assists on the goal went to Gamache and Andy Hyvarinen.
Nipissing came out hard in the second period. Andrew Marcoux scored on the powerplay after Lakehead captain Jordan Smith was whistled for elbowing after he flattened a Lakers forward. Then, after a giveaway in the Lakehead defensive zone, Nipissing forward Kevin Rebelo fired it past Lakehead goalie Kyle Moir to knot the game at 2-2. The Lakers continued their string of fine play with their third unanswered goal as Dorian Peca capitalized on a broken play to put the Lakers in front 3-2. Lakehead found their game again towards the end of the second period, highlighted by a Brennan Menard blast from the slot that found it's way past Nipissing goaltender Kyle Cantlon at 18:50 of the second. The assists on the goal were credited to Andrew Wilkins and Kris Hogg.
There was a nice flow to start the third period with both teams working for every inch of ice. Both goaltenders made some timely saves to keep their respective teams in the game, including a couple big saves by Kyle Moir while Lakehead was shorthanded. Matt Caria was buzzing all over the offensive zone in the third period, but was kept in check by some big saves from Cantlon.
Four-on-four overtime solved nothing.
In the shootout, Kyle Moir was perfect, and Matt Caria and Adam Sergerie both scored on their attempts to give the Lakehead the 4-3 win.
The Wolves head to Montreal next weekend for a pair of games against the Concordia Stingers.