THUNDER BAY – SPORTS – In the second of an exciting two-game weekend, the Waterloo Warriors exacted a measure of revenge and felled the Lakehead Thunderwolves 5-3 to salvage a series split before a crowd of 2,008 at the Fort William Gardens on Saturday night.
Waterloo came out with a lot of jumps and scored just 13 seconds into the contest when Can Nicoll was left alone in front of Wolves’ goalie Nic Renyard.
Mitch Elliot added another with a hard wrist shot from the face-off circle at 11:34 and the Warriors took a 2-0 lead into the second period.
Shots on goal after 20 minutes were 20-12 for Waterloo.
Lakehead regrouped in the second, outshooting the Warriors 19-10. Caleb Boman ripped a one-timer from the point past Warriors’ netminder Julian Sime at 14:52 while the Wolves held a 5-on-3 man-advantage, with Daniel Del Paggio and Chase Stewart assisting on the only goal of the middle stanza.
Cole Murphy knocked home a rebound from the doorstep 1:57 into the third and Jack Scanlan scored from the edge of the crease on the power play to give Waterloo a seemingly comfortable 4-1 lead at the 4:34 mark.
The Thunderwolves showed no quit, however, and Josh Laframboise shovelled a backhander past Sime on a Lakehead power play at 8:19 to give the Wolves some hope, with Jordan King and Dexter Kuczek getting the helpers.
Del Paggio and Patrick Murphy set up Joseph Leonidas who scored on a slap shot from the point at 15:09 to cut the lead to 4-3, turning that hope into a realistic chance of tying the game up.
Renyard was pulled from the net in favour of an extra attacker with two minutes left on the clock and the Wolves continued to dial up the pressure but were unable to solve Sime again and Michael Morgan’s empty-netter at 19:57 iced the game for the Warriors.
Lakehead’s power play was 2-for-6 on the night, while Waterloo went 1-for-4.
The final shots on goal tally were 48-37 for the Thunderwolves.
The Molson Three Stars of the game were:
- Caleb Boman, Lakehead
- Julian Sime, Waterloo
- Josh Laframboise, Lakehead
The loss drops Lakehead’s OUA record to 9-8-1 (15-9-1 overall) and leaves the Thunderwolves in fifth-place in the ten-team West Division.
The Wolves will be on the road next weekend for a pair of games against the Windsor Lancers.
