The offensive brilliance of freshman Dan Speer led his No. 7 Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team took Game One of their best-of-three OUA Semi Final series with a 4-1 win over the No.9 Laurier Golden Hawks Wednesday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay. Speer scored one goal and set up two others in the win while Mark Robinson scored two for Lakehead and added a helper while Shandor Alphonso scored the fourth Lakehead marker. Mark Voakes responded for the Hawks.
Lakehead netminder Chris Whitley and Lauriers Jeff Macdougald both played strong games in their respective goals. Lakehead now has a overall 18-10-2 OUA mark (5-1 playoffs) and 22-16-4 overall, while Laurier is 15-10-3 in OUA play (2-2 playoffs) and 19-14-2 overall. The Wolves outshot the Hawks 43-27 in the game. There were 9 minor penalties given to Laurier and 8 handed out to Lakehead. Both teams scored once with the man advantage.
Lakehead Head Coach Pete Belliveau said it was a hard-earned win. Ill be honest. It wasnt our best game, and it wasnt a 4-1 game. We played well for parts of the first, they played well in the second, and we picked it up in the third. I thought Speer and Whitley played well for us and their second goaltender played very well. Weve got to be ready to execute on Friday because theyre a very tough team at home.
Game Two will be played in Waterloo this Friday night at 7:30 pm EST at the Waterloo Recreation Complex. Game Three, if necessary will be played Sunday night at 7:30 in Waterloo. The games in Waterloo will be carried live in Thunder Bay on 580 CKPR AM and online at www.ckpr.com with Bryan Wyatt calling all the action.
The first period opened with some uneven play for the first few minutes but Lakehead picked up the tempo around the 5:00 mark. Speer got the Wolves on the board at 6:29, firing a long shot that went off Laurier starting netminder Justin Days stick, then his shoulder, then high into the air before falling behind the goalie and just crossing the line before he could clear it. The assist went to Robinson. Alphonso made it 2-0 at 10:53 on the powerplay; jumping on a rebound off a Mike Jacobsen shot and beating Day. The other assist went to Jason Lange. Laurier decided to put Macdougald into the net at this point. He made two good saves and then Laurier went on the powerplay near the end of the first and capitalized at 19:08 when Voakes knocked in a rebound assisted by Rob Dmytruk and James Edgar. Lakehead outshot Laurier 13-8 in the first.
The Hawks came out with some jump in the second and put on some pressure. Lakeheads Whitley had to come up with a big save off Dmytruk at 9:50 when the Hawk fired a quick shot from the slot on a Laurier powerplay. The referee disallowed a seeming Laurier goal three minutes later; ruling he had blown the play dead due to losing site of the puck before it went in. Lakeheads Speer then made a great move to beat a Laurier d-man and fired a rocket that rang the left Laurier post at 16:30. The Wolves Andrew Brown then missed an empty net at 17:30 and the Wolves furiously tried to knock in the rebound but Macdougald made three good stops during the ensuing scramble. Lakeheads Whitley then made a fine pad save off a shot by the Hawks Dmytruk at 19:30. Shots were 11-11 in the second.
Laurier again came out quick to start the third and Whitley again stoned Dmytruk at the 2:00 mark. The Wolves began to pick up play and Robison converted some hard work by Tobias Whelan and Speer at 9:02. Macdougald made a great juggling screened save at 10:07 off a deflected blast by Lakeheads Mike Jacobsen. Lakehead kept up the pressure and buzzed the Laurier goal and Robinson got his second at 10:07; set up by an incredible individual effort by Speer who cut in from the right side, held the puck, then faked out and drew the last Laurier d-man towards him and Spe