The No. 5 Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team heads to Southern Ontario this weekend for a grueling three-games-in-three-days road trip; playing divisional rivals Waterloo in Waterloo Friday and Saturday nights and the University of Toronto on Sunday afternoon.
The Wolves enter the weekend with a 16-3-1 OUA mark in conference play (20-7-1 overall) before the holiday break and. Lakehead is in first place in the very competitive OUA Far West Division; two points ahead of Laurier and three ahead of both Waterloo and Western. Waterloo is 15-7 in OUA play and is tied for third in the OUA West with Western, right behind Laurier and Lakehead. The resurgent Varsity Blues have an OUA mark of 11-11-1 and are now tied for first with Queens in the OUA Far East Division.
Lakehead is coming off a home sweep of Windsor last weekend while Waterloo have split road games last week with a win at Western and a loss at Laurier. Toronto is coming off an away win at Ryerson followed by a crushing 10-4 win at Varsity Arena over the same Rams.
The Wolves currently sit tied for first in the conference in goals for with 97 with Laurier and tied for first in the conference in goals allowed with Western with 47. Waterloo is second in the OUA in goals for with 94 and tied for 7th in the conference in goals allowed with 71. Toronto is 9th in the OUA in goals for with 76 and 8th in the conference in goals allowed with 71.
Lakehead Head Coach Don McKee, who will be coaching against his old team at home in Waterloo for the first time, said every game is crucial for the Wolves. A huge weekend lies ahead as we prepare to play two of the hottest teams in the OUA - the Waterloo Warriors and the Toronto Varsity Blues. Waterloo is a dominant force in the OUA West and is hoping home ice will prove to be a positive environment. Toronto, tied for first place in their Eastern Conference division, makes them a team with whom to be reckoned, as they are focus on winning their division. The Thunderwolves have not travelled south since the end of November, when we split with Guelph. The coaching staff is hopeful that the offensive power that has been shown at The Gardens recently will travel with us on the road this weekend.
All the games can be heard live in Thunder Bay on CKPR FM 91.5 and online at www.ckpr.com with Bryan Wyatt calling the action and Jonas Gilbart handling the pre-game and intermission shows. Fridays and Saturdays games in Waterloo face off at 7:30 pm EST while Sundays game in Toronto goes at 2:00 pm EST.
Head To Head:
The Thunderwolves are 19-7-2 against the Warriors; 17-7-2 in the regular season and 2-0 in the playoffs. Lakehead outscored Waterloo 114-87 in those games. Lakehead split its home series in October with the Warriors; winning 5-1 and losing 7-3. The Thunderwolves have an all-time record of 6 wins, 2 losses, and 2 ties against Toronto and the Wolves have outscored the Blues 54-34 in those 9 games. Lakehead defeated Toronto this year 6-1 at the TBayTel Varsity Cup Tournament in Thunder Bay.
Wolves Record Breaking Season:
In a season that has seen a couple new individual marks set by Mark Soares and Brock McPherson; it is very important to note the team accomplishments of this year's squad.Last Sunday'swin over Torontogives the Wolves19 wins; a new Lakehead benchmark. The previous record of 18 wins was set in 2002-03 and 03-04; during the then 24-game long OUA regular season.However, this year's squad achieved the 19 win mark in only 23 games in the 28-game long regular season which began in 2006-07.
Additionally, Lakehead's away win over Toronto gives them 9 road victories for theseason; eclipsing the old mark of 8 set in 2004-05. This year's squad has 10regular season home wins and are is one away from the record of 11 set in 2003-04.