The CIS No. 10 Lakehead Thunderwolves mens hockey team opens up its OUA best-of-three first round playoff series against the No. 9 Waterloo Warriors this Wednesday night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay. Game 2 is set for Saturday night at 7:30 pm EST in Waterloo and Game 3, if necessary, goes Sunday at 7:30 pm in Waterloo.
Lakehead finished OUA regular season play with an 18-8-1-1 record (24-11-1-1 overall); good for 38 points and fourth in the OUA Far West Division and fifth in the overall OUA West Division. Waterloo finished with an 18-7-0-3 OUA mark; good for 39 points and third in the OUA Far West and fourth in the overall OUA West Division.
Lakehead ended regular season play with a big home sweep over the then No. 6 Western Mustangs while Waterloo finished with losses to Toronto and Laurier and a victory over Windsor that put the Lancers out of the playoffs in the last game of the regular season.
Waterloo Head Coach Brian Bourque said he and his squad expect the series to go down to the wire. We are expecting this to be an outstanding series. Lakehead has an experienced team and are well coached. Our teams have competed hard against each other and been evenly matched all season.
Wednesdays game faces off at 7:30 pm EST and will be videowebcast live with ordering info available at http://events.news-cast.com/events/Lakehead Viewers will need hi speed internet and Windows Media Player to watch the broadcasts. Rock94 FM Sports Director Bryan Wyatt will be calling the play live with Argus campus newspaper Sports Editor Mike St. Jean handling the pre-game and intermission.
The game(s) in Waterloo will be broadcast live on Rock94 FM in Thunder Bay and online at www.Rock94.com with Bryan Wyatt calling all the action.
Waterloo Athletics will also be doing an audiocast of the game live at http://www.athletics.uwaterloo.ca/varsity/webcast.html
If there is a Game 3 in Waterloo on Sunday; it will face off at 7:30 pm and be broadcast on Rock94 FM and by Waterloo Athletics audiocast.
Head To Head:
This will be the second time that the two teams have met in the postseason; with Lakehead defeating Waterloo 2-0 in an OUA first round series in 2004-05 by scores of 12-1 and 3-1.
The Wolves have an all time record of 22 wins, 10 losses, and 2 ties against Waterloo; 20-10-2 in regular season play and 2-0 in the playoffs. Lakehead outscored Waterloo 132-108 in those 34 previous games.
Waterloo had the edge in OUA play this season taking three of four regular season outings; the Warriors taking one win at home 7-5 and Lakehead winning the second by a 2-1 margin. Waterloo defeated Lakehead twice in Thunder Bay at the end of January by 3-1 and 6-3 scores.
The Wolves are ninth in CIS offense with 3.6 goals per game while the Warriors are fifth with 4 per game. Lakehead is fourth in the nation in team defense allowing 2.5 goals per game while Waterloo is eight with 3 per game.
For full Series Preview; CLICK HERE