The No. 6 Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team heads to Guelph, Ontario this weekend for a two-game set against the Guelph Gryphons on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.
Lakehead enters the weekend with a 10-2 OUA mark (11-5 overall); good for first place in the OUA Far West Division and tops overall in the OUA. Lakehead has the same amount of points as No. 9 Western but the Wolves are in first due to having one more win. The OUA Mid West No. 10 Brock Badgers also have the same amount of points as Lakehead and Western but Brock also has one less win than Lakehead. Guelph is 6-7-1 in OUA action and is tied for second with York in the OUA Mid West Division.
The Wolves are coming off home sweep of the UOIT Ridgebacks last weekend while the Gryphons are coming off losses to Western and Laurier.
Lakehead Head Coach Don McKee said his team should expect a very tough series. "After a weekend at home of great success; a coach is always anxious about going in and playing a tough team like Guelph Gryphons. This is a team that has a .500 record but has beaten the tenth ranked Brock Badgers, and twice beaten the York Lions, a team that gave us all we could handle in back-to-back games. Guelph is a team with two solid goaltenders, and our Wolves snipers will need to be sharp to beat them."
Both games can be heard live in Thunder Bay on CKPR FM 91.5 in Thunder Bay and online at www.ckpr.com with Fridays game facing off at 7:30 pm EST and Saturdays game starting at 2:00 pm EST.
Head to Head:
The Wolves are 10-2-2 against the Gryphons all-time; 8-2-2 in the regular season and 2-0 in the playoffs. Lakehead has outscored Guelph 71-44 in those 14 games.
Team GF/GA Comparison:
Lakehead Goals For: 50; Tied 3rd in OUA. Guelph Goals For: 34; Tied 7th OUA.
Lakehead Goals Against: 29; 2nd OUA. Guelph Goals For: 49; 2nd last OUA.
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
The Wolves enter the weekend riding a six-game OUA win streak and will look to gain valuable points to stay in the battle for playoff positioning in the OUA Far West. Lakehead showed some positives in their home sweep over UOIT last weekend; especially big improvement on the power play. The Wolves scored four times with the man advantage in last Saturdays 6-1 win. They are now 14-68 (20.6 %) with the man advantage. Their penalty kill stays strong at 87.1% (61-70).
The hot play of the line of junior Dan Speer, sophomore Brock McPherson, and sophomore Mark Soares continued last week and their continued development will be key this weekend. Speer has 6 goals and 11 assists and is tied for sixth in OUA scoring. McPherson potted four goals last weekend and now has 9 goals and 6 assists; tied for 8th in conference scoring. Soares uses his speed to create opportunities for his line-mates and has 2 goals and 10 assists.
Lakehead first line of senior Tobias Whelan (3 goals, 9 assists), senior captain Andrew Brown (8 goals, 2 assists), and freshman Kris Hogg (5 goals, 7 assists) are also scoring. Lakeheads balanced attack will also look for offense from junior Shandor Alphonso (4 goals, 2 assists), fifth-year senior Mike Wehrstedt (2 goals, 1 assist), and senior Richard Molenaar (2 goals, 1 assist). Senior Matt Maisonneuve and senior Brad Priestlay had very effective weekends as defensive forwards against UOIT and their PK play was very solid.
Sophomore defenseman Jordan C. Smith had perhaps his best weekend in a Lakehead jersey; delivering a bushel of big hits and supplying a lot of offense. He now has 2 goals and 7 assists to lead the Wolves D-Corps. Freshman Pierre-Marc Guilbault also stepped up offensively and now has 7 assists. The Wolves will need strong play from freshmen Mitch Maunu, sophomore Andy Zulyniak (2 goals, 5 assists), senior Drew Kivell and senior Matt Jacques this weeke