THUNDER BAY – Sports – In a game where the Thunderwolves just couldn’t get the offence to click, Lakehead was beaten 3-1 by the division-leading Brock Badgers at the Seymour-Hannah Centre in St. Catharines on Friday night.
The first period saw plenty of back-and-forth action as well as some tough, physical play by both sides, but solid goaltending by Lakehead’s Nic Renyard and Brock’s Logan Thompson kept the first 20 minutes scoreless.
Brock had the majority of the scoring chances in the second period and Renyard made several good pad saves to keep the Badgers off the scoreboard until Ryan Burton broke the deadlock by finishing off a two-on-one with 4:17 to go.
Tyler Rollo broke in alone on Renyard and beat him with a backhand deke to put Brock up by two at 6:11 of the third, and then just 14 seconds later Frank Pucci pounced on a rebound at the edge of the crease and suddenly the Badgers held a 3-0 lead.
Josh Laframboise got one back for Lakehead less than a minute later when he fired a hard wrister over Thompson’s shoulder from the right hash mark, with Daniel Del Paggio assisting.
The Wolves had a five-on-three power play for 1:45 later on in the period but were unable to convert and Brock held on the rest of the way to preserve the win.
Total shots on goal in the game were 41-27 for the Badgers.
Neither team was able to score with the man-advantage as Lakehead went 0-for-6 while Brock was 0-for-4.
The loss drops Lakehead’s OUA record to 10-12-1 (16-13-1 overall) and the Wolves slipped down into eighth place in the tightly-contested West Division.
The Wolves will look to get back in the win column when they face off against the Badgers Saturday afternoon beginning at 2:15 p.m.
