Assistant captain Tobias Whelan was the star for the Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team as he scored two shorthanded tallies in the third period to lead his squad to a 5-1 win over the UOIT Ridgebacks Friday night in Oshawa, Ontario.
Lakehead outshot the Ridgebacks 51-32 in the game and were again having trouble scoring until they took the lead late in the second period and then Whelans heroics scored two shorthanded tallies and an empty netter to put the battling Ridgebacks away.
Lakehead goes to 5-3-1 OUA and 7-5-1 overall while UOIT is now 2-3-1 in OUA action and 4-8-1 overall.
Both netminders played well with Lakeheads Kyle Moir sharp when he had to be; including stoning UOITs Brent Varty during a third period breakaway. The Ridgebacks Matt Mateja was very strong; making a number of big saves on the night.
The other Wolves goals came from while Kris Hogg, Dan Speer, and Scott Dobben. Speers game winning goal in the second period for the Wolves was an highlight reel goal; undressing a UOIT d-man and then cutting across the net and beating UOITs Mateja upstairs with a flip shot. A unique note was that Lakeheads three shorthanded goals in the third period were all scored on the same penalty. Josh Vatri tallied for the Ridgebacks.
Matejas play was the difference through the first two periods and the third period was the closest of the game with Lakehead taking a string of minor penalties. However, Whelans heroics and Moirs timely saves were the difference in the third as the Wolves finally notched their first Friday night win of the OUA regular season.
Lakehead was 1-6 on the powerplay while UOIT was 0-7.
The two teams face off again Saturday afternoon at 3:30 pm EST at the Campus Ice Centre on the UOIT campus in Oshawa and the game will be videowebcast free by UOIT Athletics and you can access it by going to the Ridgebacks website at: http://www.uoitridgebacks.com/fanzone/cast-live.html.
Lakehead 5 at UOIT 1 Nov 7, 2008
1st Period
Scoring - No Scoring
Penalties - M. Maunu Lkhd (tripping) 2:59, J. Vatri Uoit (tripping) 6:11, P. Pascuzzi Uoit (hooking) 11:05, A. Brown Lkhd (holding) 16:59
2nd Period
Scoring
1. UOIT, J. Vatri (2) (T. Legge) 8:49
2. Lakehead, K. Hogg (7) (M. Soares, J. Smith) 15:58 PP
3. Lakehead, D. Speer (3) (D. Kivell) 18:16
Penalties - S. Dobben Lkhd (hooking) 5:34, J. Smith Lkhd (roughing) 10:04, D. Bagshaw Uoit (roughing) 14:42
3rd Period
Scoring
4. Lakehead, T. Whelan (3) 16:52 SH
5. Lakehead, T. Whelan (4) 17:34 SH EN
6. Lakehead, S. Dobben (3) (K. Hogg, P. Guilbault) 17:50 SH
Penalties - B. Varty Uoit (boarding) 4:25, D. Kivell Lkhd (interference) 7:28, T. Legge Uoit (kneeing) 9:48, J. Vatri Uoit (tripping) 11:38, T. Whelan Lkhd (hooking) 14:05, K. Sagert Lkhd (high sticking) 16:43
LKHD Shots: 21 20 10 TOTAL: 51
UOIT Shots: 12 9 11 TOTAL: 32
Power Play Conversion
Lakehead 1-6. UOIT 0-7.
Goaltenders
Lakehead
Moir 1-2-0-1 Start: 1st 0:00 Min: 60:00 SV: 31 GA: 1
UOIT
Mateja 2-2-0-0 Start: 1st 0:00 Min: 59:17 SV: 46 GA: 4