Wolves edge Laurier 4-3 for weekend sweep
The Lakehead Thunderwolves edged Laurier 4-3 at Sun Life Arena in Waterloo on Saturday night to sweep the weekend series with the Golden Hawks.
Waterloo opened the scoring when Derek Schoenmakers broke in alone on Lakehead goalie Justin McDonald and beat him low on the glove side 15:24 into the game.
Carson Dubchak got a breakaway of his own and fired the puck high on Vinny Merante’s trapper side to even the score with only 20 seconds left in the opening period. Brennen Dubchak and Linden Springer were credited with the assists.
Trevor Hynnes put the Wolves ahead with a wrist shot from the high slot at 5:51 of the second after a nice set-up by Matt Alexander, with Devin Fullum getting the second helper.
Dylan Butler added another 16 seconds later when he flipped the puck over a sprawled Merante from the edge of the crease, with E.J. Faust picking up the assist.
The Golden Hawks seemed to wake up after that and created some good scoring chances in the last half of the middle frame, but Justin McDonald was equal to the task each time.
Laurier continued to pressure the Wolves in the third period, and narrowed the gap to 3-2 when Kyle Morrison scored on a hard shot from the face-off circle at the 7:09 mark.
Lakehead restored its two-goal cushion when Kelin Ainsworth completed a perfect tic-tac-toe play set up by Cody Alcock and Carson Dubchak at 15:17 after a Laurier defenceman was caught pinching, but Christian Mrokzkowski replied less than a minute later to bring the Hawks back to within one.
Laurier pulled Merante for an extra attacker and the Hawks were swooping around the Lakehead net in the final minute-and-a-half, but the Wolves held on to preserve the victory.
Total shots on goal for the night were 35-34 for Lakehead.
The Thunderwolves went 0-for-3 on the power play, while Laurier did not get any man-advantage opportunities in the game.
With the win, Lakehead goes into the Christmas exam break with a conference record of 8-6-1 and moves up to fifth-place in the ten-team OUA West Division.
The Thunderwolves will return to the ice when they host the Nipissing Lakers in the Christmas Challenge on December 29th and 30th.
