MONTREAL – SPORTS – What a difference a day makes. 24 hours after falling 8-1 to McGill, the Lakehead Thunderwolves showed that turnabout is fair play by rallying to stun the Redmen 7-5 at the McConnell Arena in Montreal on Saturday night.
After falling behind 2-0 in the first period on markers by McGill’s Antoine Dufort-Plante and Nikolas Brouillard, it looked like the rematch would be more of the same. But Lakehead dominated the second period and stormed back with five unanswered goals to send the Redmen reeling and take a 5-2 lead after 40 minutes.
Jordan King struck first on a Lakehead power play just 1:59 into the middle frame and then Daniel Del Paggio knotted the score at 8:59.
Caleb Boman’s slapper flew past McGill goalie Louis-Philip Guindon’s glove to put the Wolves ahead for the first time at 12:56, and Josh Laframboise redirected Jonathon Masters’ shot to dent the twine at 15:32.
Scott Gall finished off the second-period onslaught at 16:25 when he sailed down the left wing and fooled Guindon by outwaiting him before going high on the short side.
Brouillard took advantage of a McGill power play opportunity when he blasted a one-timer past Lakehead netminder Devin Green 44 seconds into the third, but Laframboise replied for the Wolves by finishing off an odd-man rush a minute later to restore Lakehead’s three-goal cushion.
Aaron Armstrong was the recipient of a lucky bounce and scored on a goalmouth scramble at 7:49 to narrow the gap to 6-4.
With the McGill net empty in favour of an extra attacker, Dufort-Plante went top shelf from just outside the crease to pull the Redmen to within one with 1:54 remaining.
That’s as close as the home side would get, as Laframboise completed his hat trick with an empty-netter at 19:19 to seal the deal for the Thunderwolves.
Lakehead freshman Dexter Kuczek also had a three-point night, picking up a trio of helpers.
Total shots on goal in the game were 44-29 in favour of the Redmen, but those numbers were not indicative of the Wolves’ solid play at both ends of the ice.
For the night, the Thunderwolves went 1-for-2 on the power play while the Redmen were 1-for-6.
The win levels Lakehead’s OUA record at 2-2, and improves its overall record to 6-3.
The Thunderwolves will return home next weekend for a pair of games against the RMC Paladins, with the opening face-off set for 7:00 p.m. at the Fort William Gardens on both Friday and Saturday nights.
