THUNDER BAY – Sports – The Lakehead Thunderwolves were edged 4-2 by the Brock Badgers before a crowd of 1919 at the Fort William Gardens on Saturday night, giving the Badgers the weekend sweep of the Wolves.
Lakehead opened the scoring when Linden Springer blasted a one-timer past Brock goalie Clint Windsor while the Wolves were on the power play with 58 seconds remaining in the first period. Patrick Murphy and Carson Dubchak were credited with the assists.
Brock tied the game up 4:35 into the second when Sammy Banga walked in alone on Lakehead netminder Justin McDonald and beat him low on the stick side.
Banga struck again with only 13 seconds left in the middle frame on another breakaway, this time going high on the blocker side to put the Badgers ahead by one.
Brock increased its lead to 3-1 early in the third when the puck took a funny bounce off the boards and Josh Timpano fired the puck into an empty cage with McDonald caught out of position.
Lakehead pulled McDonald with over two minutes remaining in the game while the Wolves were on the power play, giving them a two-man advantage. The move paid off when Zach Whitlock scored from close range at 19:19 to close the gap to 3-2, with Springer and Murphy getting the helpers.
But Brody Silk smoothly sealed the deal for Brock with an empty net goal with 10 seconds left in the contest.
Total shots on goal in the game were 34-33 for the Badgers, with both sides getting solid play from their netminders.
Lakehead went 2-for-6 on the power play, while Brock was 0-for-6.
The Molson three stars of the game were:
- Sammy Banga, Brock
- Linden Springer, Lakehead
- Clint Windsor, Brock
The loss evens Lakehead’s conference record to 8-8-1 (10-12-1 overall) and drops the Wolves down to 7th place in the OUA West Division.
Lakehead will be on the road next weekend for a pair of games at the University of Ottawa.
