Steve Rawskis goal with 3.4 seconds left capped a furious third period rally by the Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team as they came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the No. 5 McGill Redmen 3-2 in another wild and exciting game between the two developing rivals Saturday night before 2997 fans at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay.
Tobias Whelan led the Wolves with a pair of goals while Jeff Richards added a pair of assists. Freshman sensation Mark Soares played an excellent and relentless game for the Wolves. Guillaume Demers and Eric LItalien scored for the Redmen. Lakehead outshot the Redmen 38-28 on the night.
Lakehead now has a 10-4-2 OUA record (12-7-2 overall) while McGill goes to 8-3-3-1 in OUA play (13-6-3-1 overall). Lakehead was assessed 10 penalties for 28 minutes while McGill was given 14 penalties for 36 minutes.
Lakehead netminder Chris Whitley was a little shakey in the first period but then picked up his play and made a number of fantastic saves in the Lakehead goal. McGill netminder Jean-Michel Filiatraut played a great game for the Redmen and also made some excellent saves throughout the game.
Play in the first saw both teams hustling but McGill looking a little sharper. McGill jumped out to an early lead when Guillaume Demers scored a shorthanded marker at the 53 second mark; assisted by Chris Churchill-Smith and David Urquhart. McGills special teams clicked again at 8:39 when Eric LItalien scored on the power play set up by Ken Morin and Louis Simon-Allaire. Lakehead outshot McGill 14-11 in the first.
The second period was highlighted by some good netminding by both goalies and some strong checking and the Wolves outshot the Redmen 8-6.
The third period was a wild ride from the get-go as the Wolves began to play with desperation. Lakehead drew a minor as the midway point approached and chances for a Wolves comeback began to look slim. However, Tobias Whelan intercepted an errant McGill pass in the Redmen zone and fired a rocket from the slot that beat Filiatrault high over his left shoulder to cut the lead to 2-1.
The Wolves took another minor with just over six minutes remaining and then Lakeheads Jeff Richards intercepted a McGill pass in his own end and used his jets to roar in on a breakway. However, Filiatrault stood tall and made a great save to deny the Wolves captain at the 14 minute mark. Filiatrault followed 30 seconds later with an excellent point-blank save to deny Lakeheads Steve Rawski. Filiatrault then made another fine save to stop Lakeheads Richard Molenaar at 15:56.
The Redmen then applied a little pressure of their own; and Benoit Martin fired a blast that deflected off the Lakehead crossbar at 16:30. Lakeheads Whitley then made the game saver for the Wolves at 16:55 when he made an incredible sliding toe save. The Wolves then went back up the ice and Mark Robinson kicked the puck to Richards in the corner and Richards let loose a howitzer of a shot that was kicked out nicely by McGills Filiatrault but the rebound came ride to Whelan who banged it in at 17:07.
The Wolves really smelled blood and stormed the McGill goal for the next minute and the desperate Redmen were forced to draw a minor with two minutes left. The Wolves kept up their relentless assault on the McGill goal and McGill took another minor with 37 seconds left; giving Lakehead a two-man advantage for the remainder of regulation play.
The Wolves fired away at Filiatrault for the next 30 seconds and then Steve Rawski jumped on the puck in the corner to the right of the McGill netminder and Rawski fired it hard from the side of the net and banked it in off Filiatrault with 3.6 seconds remaining. The assists went to Richards and Matt Jacques.
Things turned a little nasty in the centre-ice faceoff after the goal as both teams began to push and shove as the buzzer sounded. The benches cleared and more rough stuff