The Thunderwolves scored five unanswered goals to close the game and beat the Western Mustangs 5-2, Saturday night at London, Ontario to sweep their best-out-of-three OUA West Division final series.
With the win, Lakehead moves on to host the East champion McGill Redmen in the Queens Cup for the OUA Championship next Saturday, March 13 at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay. The Thunderwolves last Queens Cup game was a 4-0 win over McGill in 2006.
Freshman goalie Alex Dupuis (Thunder Bay) stopped 28 of 30 shots to improve to 6-0 in the postseason while five Wolves scored including Ryan McDonald (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan), Dan Speer (Thunder Bay), Scott Dobben (Drayton, Ontario), Shandor Alphonso (Orangeville, Ontario) and Mark Soares (Burnaby, British Columbia) all coming from the second period on.
The Mustangs offence came in the first period courtesy of Mike Sharp (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario) and Keaton Turkiewicz (Brantford, Ontario). Netminder Keyvan Hunt (Coquitlam, British Columbia) stopped 28 of LUs 33 shots on goal.
Lakehead won the special teams battles, going 1-3 with the man advantage while killing off all six of Westerns powerplay opportunities.
The series win was Lakeheads fourth in six postseason matchups all-time against Western. Their playoff record against the rival Stangs is now 10-6.