The Waterloo Warriors scored the first goal of the night but the No. 4 Lakehead Thunderwolves scored the next twelve before a full house of 3710 fans Friday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay to give Lakehead a 12-1 victory anda 2-0 sweep of their OUA Far West Division Semi-Final series. Lakehead was led by Chris Shaffer with 1 goal and4 assists, Jeff Richards with 3 goals and an assist, Joel Scherban with three assists, Robert Hillier with a goal and 2 assists and Steve Rawski with 2 goals. Kevin Hurley scored the lone Waterloo marker. The game featured a lot of hard hitting by both teams and was very intense in the first, but the Thunderwolves exploded for 8 goals in the second to put the game away.
Action was fast and furious in the early going and it was the Warriors who jumped out to an early lead at 1:19 when Kevin Hurley knocked in a shot from Adam Metherel that had gone through the legs of Lakehead goaltender Grant McCune and bounce off the left post in front of the net. Lakehead struck right back at 2:10 Robert Hillier was fed a beautiful pass from Jason Lange and Hillier walked in alone and beat Waterloo netminder Jeremy Elliot. The other assist went to Craig Priestlay. Waterloo's Richard Scott came close at 3:30 when his shot deflected off the mask of McCune and bounced up and over the netminder but a Lakehead D-man cleared it out of danger. Lakehead then went back up the ice and Mike Wehrstedt wrapped around and passed across to Leon Cooper who couldn't get good wood on it. Lakehead kept up the pressure and were rewarded at 8:52 when Jeff Richards knocked in a rebound off a shot by Chris Shaffer. The other assist went to Joel Scherban. The Wolves struck again at 10:14 when both teams were playing with 4 skaters. Murray Magill bagged this third of the series, knocking in a pass from Bryan Duce. Waterloo's Elliot made an incredible kicking pad save to rob Lakehead's Kris Callaway with a minute left. He then followed with a lightning fast glove save off a quick wrist shot by Joel Scherban. Lakehead outshot Waterloo 11-10 in the first.
The second period saw the Thunderwolves erupt on offense and Bryan Duce started it off at 55 seconds when he tapped in a pass from Chris Shaffer. The hard hitting continued as Lakehead's Hugo Lehoux then crunched Waterloo's Ryan McGregor. Lakehead went on the powerplay and Mike Jacobsen walked in with the puck and fired a shot from the hash marks that beat Elliot. Assists went to Jeff Richards and Joel Scherban. Lakehead made it 6-1 at 6:17 on a beautiful goal. Mike Jacobsen wheeled at the Lakehead blue line and hit Robert Hillier with a pass up the right side. Hillier then fired the puck across the ice to Craig Priestlay who one-timed it home. Lakehead went on the powerplay and big Steve Rawski scored his first of the playoffs at 7:37, assisted by Hugo Lehoux and Chris Shaffer. Jeff Richards then fired a rocket from the point that hit thepost andbounced back to him and he fired again and this time found the top corner at 11:11 on the powerplay. The assists went to Chris Shaffer and Mike Jacobsen. Richards then trailed Chris Shaffer who fired a shot that was stopped by Elliot but the rebound came right to Richards and he fired it in at 11:39. The onslaught continued when Steve Rawski scored his second of the game at 13:14 with assists going to Jason Lange and Robert Hillier. Chris Shaffer then scored from the slot at 19:01, with assists going to Mike Jacobsen and Joel Scherban. Lakehead outshot Waterloo 14-3 in the second.
The third period saw Lakehead content to play mostly defense although they still had a few good chances. They also put Cory McEachran in net to get some playoff ice time. Waterloo's Adam Metherel had a breakaway but McEachran made an excellent butterfly save. Lakehead then went on th