The Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team scored five unanswered goals to storm back from a 3-1 deficit and defeat the Laurier Golden Hawks 6-3 Saturday night in Waterloo, Ontario. Lakehead now has a 4-1 OUA record (5-4 overall) while Laurier is 2-3 in OUA play and 5-6 overall.
Lakehead was led by Kris Hogg with two goals while singles came from Andrew Brown, Mark Soares, Richard Molenaar, and Tobias Whelan. Whelan also added two assists as did Matt Jacques. Lauriers goals came from Nick Vergeer, Luke Girard, and Jean-Michel Rizk.
Lakehead outshot Laurier 44-38 in the game. The Wolves were 1-4 on the powerplay while Laurier was 2-7. Lakehead netminder Chris Whitley continued his strong play; turning aside 35 Laurier shots. Laurier goaltender Jeff MacDougald also made a number of good saves; stopping 38 Lakehead shots.
Lakeheads Kris Hogg got the Wolves up quickly; scoring at the 32 second mark assisted by Tobias Whelan and Matt Jacques. The Wolves then took a series of penalties allowing the Hawks to score two powerplay goals with two-man advantages. The first came from Nick Vergeer assisted by Rob Dmytruk at 10:33 with the second being scored at 11:07 scored by Luke Girard and assisted by Vergeer and Mark Voakes. The goals sparked the Hawks and they quickly made it 3-1 at 15:57 on a goal by Jean-Michel Rizk; set up by Mike Leclair and Luke Dubbin. Lakehead then took another minor; but fought it off near the end of the period. Laurier then took two minors at the end of the first; which would give Lakehead a two-man advantage of their own to begin the second. Shots on goal were 16-15 Laurier in the first.
The Wolves made the powerplay count and got back within one at 1:02 of the second period when Andrew Brown beat Laurier netminder Jeff MacDougald; assisted by Andy Zulyniak and Jacques. Hogg tied the game up at 15:34, after being set up by a great play by Tobias Whelan. Shots on goal were 17-10 Lakehead in the second.
Lakeheads Chris Whitley made a great glove save to deny Lauriers Jeff Borrows at 2:56 of the third. The Wolves Richard Molenaar jumped on a loose puck inside the Hawks blueline and fired a blast that handcuffed a surprised MacDougald in the Laurier goal at 4:41. Laurier immediately went on the powerplay and applied furious pressure but the Wolves Whitley stood tall. The Hawks then took a minor to negate the remainder of their powerplay and the Wolves then had one of their own.
Lauriers MacDougald made a big stop to stone Lakeheads Andy Zulyniak at the tail end of the Wolves powerplay. Laurier immediately went on the powerplay again but it was the Wolves Tobias Whelan who almost scored when he intercepted an errant Laurier pass. The Hawks MacDougald again came up big. Lakeheads Whitley then made a good save and the Hawks took a minor in the ensuing scrum in front of the goal; negating the Laurier powerplay. Whitley made another good stop off Lauriers Matt Grennier and the Wolves enjoyed a short powerplay with nine minutes left. Action became fast and furious with both netminders having to make big saves. The Wolves Dan Speer and Mark Soares broke in on a 2-on-1 and Soares scored his first goal of the season at 12:42; converting the perfect give and go passing play. Lakeheads Tobias Whelan then made it 6-3 at 14:25; beating MacDougald top shelf with a rocket blast. The assist went to Pierre-Marc Guilbault. Shots were 12-12 in the third period and 44-38 Lakehead on the night.
The two teams face off again on Sunday and the game can be heard live at 2:00 pm EST in Thunder Bay on CKPR 91.5 FM radio and online at www.ckpr.com.
Box Score:
1st Period
Scoring - 1. Lakehead, K. Hogg (3) (T. Whelan, M. Jacques) 0:32
2. Laurier, N. Vergeer (3) (R. Dmytruk) 10:33 PP
3. Laurier, L. Girard (1) (N. Vergeer, M. Voakes) 11:07 PP
4. Laurier