The No. 8 Lakehead Thunderwolves scored four goals in the third period to storm back from a 4-1 deficit and defeated the No. 3 Western Mustangs by a 6-4 margin Friday night at the Thompson Arena in London. The win puts Lakehead's OUA record at 11-6-0 and Western's record at 12-3-0-1. Jason Lange led the Wolves with 2 goals and 1 assists while the other Lakehead goals came from Joel Scherban, Jeff Richards, Mark Robinson, and Peter Cava. Cava also added two assists. Mike Rice led the Mustangs with two goals while singles came from Steve Benedetti and Craig Kennedy. Western outshot Lakehead 31-29.
The two teams take to the ice again Saturday night at thenew John Labatt Centre in London asWestern will try to break the OUA attendance record of 4500. The game can be heard live in Thunder Bay on 580 CKPR AM and online at www.ckpr.com%20as%20well%20as%20on%20Westerncampus%20radio
Game Report by Paul Wehrstedt at the Thompson Arena
The No.8 ranked Lakehead Thunderwolves arrived in London to play the No.3 ranked Western Mustangs Friday. The Thunderwolves have the Fab Five back in the line-up this weekend so they hope that helps end their current 7 game losing streak.
The Thunderwolves started the game with lots of hustle with Scherban and Richards streaking in on a two on one break and Scherban firing a shot on D'Alessandro in the first minute of play. Whitley than made 3 consecutive saves up close. At the 3 minute mark, Jeff Richards was hit hard by Kevin Richardson in front of the T-wolves bench. Cava Got a great scoring chance from the slot on a pass from Magill. The line of Wehrstedt, Cooper, Robinson put the pressure on Western for a good 35 seconds after Cava's scoring chance.
At the 13:30 mark the T-wolves applied the pressure again when Priestlay, Whelan and Lange trapped Western in their own end. Western Scores first at 8:29 when Mike Rice and Ryan Hare broke in on a two on one and deked Chris Whitley . Craig Kennedy also assisted on the goal. Tobias Whelan was sprung one a breakaway at the 10 minute markbut was stopped by D'Alessandro with a beautiful glove save. The T-wolves broke out on a 3 on 2 but no scoring chance came of it when Tobias Whelan was run into D'Alessendro by Steve Benedetti which resulted in a T-wolves power play. The best chance on the power play came with 16 seconds to go when Jason Lange and Murray Magill had a partial breakaway and Lange fired a shot on net which was blocked by a Western defenceman. At 15:06 Mike Rice tripped Chris Whitley and Dene Poulin took exception to it resulting in coincidental minors. Play continued back and forth until Peter Cava had a golden chance to tie the game in the last minute with an open shot from the slot but D'Alessandro made the save. Shots on goal in the first were 11-5 Lakehead.
Peter Cava had a great scoring chance dribble just wide of D'Alessandro on the glove side at the 2 minute mark of the second period. Chris Whitley made a brilliant stop on Sal Pereta on a shot from right in front of the crease at the 3 minute mark. Western's Mike Rice had a great scoring chance at the 14:40 mark when he walked in from the left face-off circle and fired the shot on Whitley who deflected it up into the netting behind him. At the 10:15 minute mark Steve Rawski rocked Jason Davies in front of the penalty box. Ryan Held of Western almost scored when he picked off a clearing attempt by Whitley and fired it just wide of the net. At 14:32 Ryan Hare and Mike Rice broke in on a 2 on 1 and Mike Rice used Hare as a decoy and slid the shot by Whitley along the ice short side to make it 2-0. Lakehead responded when Robinson took a shot that bounced off the Western defenceman to make it 2-1. Peter Cava and Andrew Brown got the assists on the goal.
Western responded