WATERLOO – The Lakehead Thunderwolves were edged 3-2 by the Laurier Golden Hawks in an overtime shootout at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex on Friday night.
The Thunderwolves found themselves down early on when some good puck movement on a Laurier power play ended with Brandon Robinson firing a wrist shot past Lakehead goalie Devin Green on the glove side just 1:21 into the game.
Laurier added another at 13:45 while short-handed after Will Cook intercepted a pass and sped down the ice and deked Green out with a nice backhand move.
Although Lakehead improved its play in the second period, the Thunderwolves were unable to score and found themselves still trailing 2-0 after 40 minutes.
The Wolves kicked it up another notch in the third and dominated puck possession for most of the period.
That effort paid off when Dylan Butler took advantage of a Laurier turnover and fed a cross-crease pass to Sam Schutt who beat Hawks’ netminder Tyler Fassl at the 8:38 mark.
Lakehead capitalized on another turnover by the Golden Hawks and knotted the score at 2-2 when Scott Gall knocked home Jordan Larson’s rebound at 12:40, with Daniel Del Paggio getting the other assist.
The Thunderwolves continued to apply the pressure for the rest of the period, but were unable to convert and the match went into overtime.
Neither team was able to score in the five minutes of three-on-three play, and the game went into a shootout.
Four of the first five shooters scored in the shootout, giving Josh Laframboise a chance to end it with a goal, but Fassl denied him and the contest continued on.
The next five shooters on each side were denied by the goaltenders until Danny Hanlon, Laurier’s ninth shooter, beat Green with a hard wrister to the top shelf.
Lakehead’s Caleb Boman had a chance to extend the match, but he was denied by Fassl and the Hawks came out on top.
The loss snaps Lakehead’s five-game road winning streak, but the Wolves were able to collect a valuable point in the standings by forcing the game into overtime.
Shots on goal for the night were 42-33 for Lakehead.
In a game with few penalties called, the Wolves were 0-for-3 on the power play while the Hawks went 1-for-1.
Lakehead will wind up its road trip tomorrow night against the Waterloo Warriors.
