The Lakehead Thunderwolves lost 1-0 to the Western Mustangs in a playoff type atmosphere on Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, ON in front of a crowd of 3,216.
Lakehead came out playing physical hockey and looking to get traffic in front of Western Ontario netminder Josh Unice. The Thunderwolves carried the play early on, putting pressure on the Mustangs and got some great chances, highlighted by an open net for Thomas Frazee. But he took too long to pull the trigger, allowing Unice to get back in position to make the save.
The Wolves got in to penalty trouble toward the end of the period, and it cost them when Westerns Zach Harnden poked a loose puck past Alex Dupuis on the powerplay at 18:58 of the first.
The news got worse for Lakehead to start the second as Matt Caria was given a game misconduct at the 20:00 mark off the first period for mouthing off to the official. It didnt seem to make much difference for the Thunderwolves as they came out with a lot of jump and controlled the play.
Ryan McDonald rang a bullet off the post and Andrew Wilkins had a great tip-in off a Jake Carrick shot, but could not get the puck past Unice.
The Thunderwolves also controlled the play for the majority of the third period and had several great chances but had trouble solving Unice for the second night in a row.
Devin Welsh had a golden opportunity to even things up for Lakehead early in the period when he came from behind the net with Unice well out of position, but put a backhander off the post.
Things got intense in the last minute with Lakehead on the powerplay. The Wolves finally got the puck past Unice when Ryan McDonald deflected a blast by Mike Quesnele, but the goal was dis-allowed due to an apparent high-stick. After that, Western Ontario hung on to give the Thunderwolves their second straight 1-0 defeat.
The Molson 3 Stars of the game were:
1st Josh Unice, Western Ontario
2nd Alex Dupuis, Lakehead
3rd Mike Quesnele, Lakehead
Lakehead is on the road next weekend at Brock on Friday and Western Ontario on Saturday. Both games will be broadcast live on Rock94 FM.