The No. 6 Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team welcomes the Windsor Lancers for a crucial divisional series this Friday and Saturday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay. The series also sees the return of Windsor Head Coach Pete Belliveau to the Gardens; where he coached the Thunderwolves for their first six seasons.
The Wolves enter the weekend with a 14-3-1 OUA mark in conference play (18-7-1 overall) before the holiday break and. Lakehead is tied for first with Western in the ultra-competitive OUA Far West Division; one point ahead of Waterloo and two ahead of the red hot Laurier Golden Hawks. Lakehead has a game in hand on Western and two on both Waterloo and Laurier. Windsor is 4-15-1 in OUA play and is in fifth place in the OUA Far West Division.
Both games face off at 7:30 pm EST and will be videowebcast live with Alan Wickware calling the play by play and Lakehead Sports Info Director Mike Aylward handling the colour. Go to http://events.news-cast.com/events/Lakehead for ordering information. Viewers will need hi speed internet and Windows Media Player to watch the broadcast.
Lakehead is coming off a home sweep of RMC last weekend while Windsor split their series against a tough Queens squad. The Wolves currently sit second in the conference in goals for with 80 and third in the conference in goals allowed with 46. Windsor is third last in the OUA in goals for with 55 and last in the conference in goals allowed with 100.
Lakehead Head Coach Don McKee said he knows the Lancers will be a very tough adversary. As the number of games remaining in our schedule shrinks; each game becomes very important and this weekend is no different. We need to fight for points in every game to stay among the leaders in the OUA West and Far West. Windsor is coming off a down an up weekend vs. Queens and they will be looking to play the spoiler in every game they play from now on and this weekend will be no different. We will have to recognize that they are going to be a very dangerous and unpredictable opponent and prepare accordingly.
Head To Head:
The Thunderwolves opened the OUA regular season with two wins vs. the Lancers in Windsor in early October. The Thunderwolves and Lancers have met 30 times; with the Wolves posting a record of 24 wins, 5 losses, and 1 tie. (20 wins, 5 losses,1 tie regular season; 4 wins in the playoffs). The Wolves have outscored the Lancers 142-70 in those games.
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
The Wolves put up 16 goals in two games vs. RMC and a lot of players got in the action offensively. The balanced Wolves attack was led by the line of Tobias Whelan (4 goals, 15 assists) who had 7 points against RMC; Andrew Brown (11 goals, 4 assists); and Kris Hogg (11 goals, 10 assists), who notched 5 goals and 3 assists vs. RMC.
The SSM Line of Dan Speer (9 goals, 19 assists; 8th OUA; 14th CIS), Brock McPherson (14 goals, 11 assists; 12th in OUA scoring), and Mark Soares (7 goals, 15 assists) were also very effective against the Paladins.
Mike Wehrstedt (3 goals, 3 assists) continued his excellent play against RMC. Richard Molenaar (2 goals, 3 assists), Matt Maisonneuve (2 goals, 5 assists), and Brad Priestlay (2 goals, 4 assists) all played well against RMC and this checking line will look to add some more offensive numbers as well. Konrad Breutsch and Devin Welsh will be X factors this weekend for the Wolves. High energy forward Shandor Alphonso will miss Friday's game due to suspension but will be back in action for Saturday's second game.
Pierre-Marc Guilbault (1 goal, 11 assists) began to assert himself offensively against RMC; leading on quite a few offensive rushes. Andy Zulyniak (3 goals, 8 assists) looked solid in his return and Jordan C. Smith (3 goals, 9 assists) played some tough defensiv