Thunderwolves Playoff Hopes in Precarious Position
THUNDER BAY – SPORTS – Despite getting off to a good start, the Lakehead Thunderwolves fell 6-2 to the Brock Badgers at the Seymour-Hannah Centre in St. Catherines on Saturday afternoon.
Lakehead’s Dylan Butler scored on a shot that fooled Badgers’ goalie Logan Thompson just 27 seconds into the game, with Tomas Soustal and Sam Schutt getting the assists.
Skylar Pacheco redirected a pass behind Wolves’ netminder Devin Green at 8:24 to even the score.
Butler took a nice pass in the slot from Daniel Del Paggio and fired low on Thompson to notch his second goal of the period to put Lakehead in front 2-1. Callum Fryer was credited with the second assist.
Brock took control of the game with three straight goals in the second period.
Brody Silk went high on the blocker side at 2:01 to even the score, and Ayden MacDonald got the go-ahead goal when he was left alone in front of Green with plenty of time to dangle the puck and finish with a forehand deke at 16:14.
Frank Pucci finished off a three-on-one break with 18 seconds left in the period to give Brock a 4-2 lead heading into the third.
The Badgers got two more in the final frame to put the game out of reach.
Ethan Price scored on a Brock power play by going five-hole from a sharp angle at 7:41, and then Adam Berg launched a rocket over Green’s shoulder at 12:14 to round out the scoring.
A total of 64 penalty minutes were assessed in what turned into quite a chippy match, with 40 going to Lakehead and 24 to Brock.
For the night, Lakehead was 0-for-2 on the power play while Brock went 1-for-5.
Shots on goal in the game were 36-35 for the Badgers.
The loss was Lakehead’s fourth in a row, dropping its OUA record to 10-13-1 (16-14-1 overall) and puts the Wolves’ playoff hopes in a precarious position.
The Thunderwolves will host the Guelph Gryphons in Lakehead’s final home series of the regular season next weekend.
