A large crowd of 3504 rowdy fans saw the No. 4 Lakehead Thunderwolves defeat the No. 10 Laurier Golden Hawks 4-1. Lakehead's Jeff Richards had another fine game scoring a goal and an assist and Murray Magill kept his point production going with two assists. Lakehead's other goals came from Jesse Baraniuk, Erik Lodge, and Francis Walker. Laurier's goal came from Nick Gibson. The win puts Lakehead's OUA record at 5-1-0-0 (11-3-1-1 overall) and Laurier's OUA mark goes to 4-2-0-0 (4-6-0-0 overall). Rookie netminder Chris Whitley was again strong, winning his third OUA game against no losses and keeping his GAA at 1.00.
The Wolves went on the attack early; keeping the Hawks pinned in for the first two minutes. Laurier netminder made a good reaction save off a hard shot by Lakehead's Brad Priestlay at 2:14. Lakehead drew a minor and Laurier's Nick Gibson fired a hard shot that was gloved nicely by Lakehead goaltender Chris Whitley. Whitley made two more good stops and then Lakehead's Chris Shaffer broke in on Day and the Laurier goalie made a great glove save to stop a goal. Lakehead's Andrew Brown did a bulrush into the goal from the left side but couldn't beat Day. Lakehead's Whitley fired a long pass from the goal off the boards that found a streaking Priestlay but Day stopped him with a closed pad save.
Lakehead then broke down on a 3-on-1 rush but Day came up with two big saves. Lakehead went on the powerplay and Erik Lodge converted a beautiful three way passing play from Jeff Richards and Joel Scherban at 7:44. There was a spate of penalties around the 11:00 mark, which resulted in the Hawks playing 4-on-3, and 5-on-3, then 5-on-4. Lakehead's Whitley came up with good stops off Laurier's Nick Vukovic and Matt Grennier and the penalties were killed off. The Hawks kept up the pressure and Whitley made another good save off Jeff Grandfield. Lakehead then went on the powerplay and Tobias Whelan's low shot rolled dangerously across the Laurier crease. Lakehead's Leon Cooper fired a hard low blast that just missed the right Laurier post. Laurier then put on some pressure and Whitley had to come up with a big save again off Nick Gibson. Lakehead drew a minor with 35 seconds left in the period and then a second with no time left, which would put the Hawks two men up at the beginning of the second. Shots were even at 14 apiece.
Lakehead successfully killed off the penalties and Jason Lange broke in and fired a shot that Day deflected up and over the Laurier goal. Francis Walker gave the Wolves the 2-0 lead at 3:24 when he pounced on a loose puck in front of a sprawled Day, assisted by Murray Magill and Jason Lange. Lakehead then had a 5-on-3 of its own; and Jeff Richards blasted a rocket from the slot that beat day over the left shoulder at 8:11 assisted by Drew Kivell. Laurier drew another minor but killed this one off well with good forechecking. Lakehead's Richards broke in on Day but the goalie made a good save. Laurier went back up the ice and a low shot by Nick Gibson at 12:34 beat Lakehead's Whitley, assisted by Cameron Black and Matt Grennier. Lakehead's Leon Cooper fired a hard shot at 13:30 that was stopped by a diving Day. The Hawks then put on some pressure and Laurier's Nick Vergeer rang a hard shot off the mask of Lakehead's Whitley. Whitley followed up with two good saves. Lakehead's Jounni Kuokkanen just missed on a beautiful pass from Tobias Whelan. Shots on goal in the second were 13-12 Lakehead.
The third saw Lakehead draw minors galore in the early going; having to kill off a succession of penalties for the first six minutes of play. Laurier's Gibson had the puck skip over his stick on what would have been a sure goal as he was parked all alone at the side of the Lakehead goal. As soon as the teams were at equal strength, Lakehead attacke