THUNDER BAY — As much as it stung the Lakehead Thunderwolves to lose last week’s OUA West final to the Windsor Lancers, the Concordia Stingers might be carrying around a little baggage heading into Saturday’s bronze-medal match at Fort William Gardens.
The T-Wolves had a 1-0 lead after one period in Game 3 against the Lancers, only to lose that lead in the second and eventually bow out 4-2.
The Stingers, on the other hand, led the powerful UQTR Patriotes 4-0, only to have their opponent score four unanswered goals on Sunday afternoon to put away the OUA East final in three games, and like Windsor, claimed the automatic University Cup berth that went along with winning the conference.
The past is the past, says Thunderwolves forward Josh Van Unen, who isn’t putting too much stock into the conference final results.
Saturday’s game is all that matters at this point, he said.
“Everyone is definitely a little disappointed in how it went down. We obviously wanted to win that, get that title. But at the end of the day, it stings for a bit, but we’ve got to move on knowing we’ve got another game to prepare for and another chance to go to the national championship,” said Van Unen, a key rookie acquisition who put up 20 points in 25 games for Lakehead as a freshman this season.
Concordia is a new entity for the Thunderwolves, the two teams not playing in 2022-23, the OUA focusing on divisional rivalries when setting its schedule.
“We’ve just got to stick to our system, control what we can control. Every day in practice we’re just going to push each other to do what we need to be ready for the game,” Van Unen said. "(Winning) would be pretty cool. I know there’s a lot of guys in the room who this would mean a lot to them. Coming in as a rookie you just want to do anything you can to help those older guys go as far as they can and make those memories.”
The Stingers bring plenty of offence to the table.
Isiah Campbell, Maxim Trepanier and Alexander Katerinakis all hit double digit goals during the regular season, while Phelix Martineau has six goals in five playoff games.
Defensively, they’re even better.
Jonathan Lemieux led all OUA goaltenders with a 1.98 goals against average, the Stingers allowing just 55 goals in 26 games.
Olivier Pouliot, named LU hockey’s player of the month for February, said he knows a lot of players on the Stingers squad, growing up playing the sport in Quebec.
“They’re really good guys and really good players. We’ve just got to be ready to play hard. We’ve got to play smart and stick to the game plan and just play our best, if we want to have a chance to win this game,” Pouliot said.
Like Van Unen, Pouliot sees last weekend’s loss is ancient history.
“We’ve just to put it behind us. It’s another day, we have to win to get to the championship. We didn’t get the job done, but we still have another chance, which is pretty rare. We just have to switch the page band be ready to play.”
Coach Andrew Wilkins, who has yet to make public whether he’ll go with Max Wright or Christian Cicigoin between the pipes, said it’s not easy preparing for a team like the Stingers, but it’s a one-game showdown and anything can happen in one game.
“We’ll just have to be at the best of our game, play the way we can and focus on our style,” Wilkins said. “I think we have to check tight and the d-zone has to be really good. They have a lot of good offensive players and a good power play. We have to stay disciplined and our home-ice advantage as best as we can,” Wilkins said.
Game time is 7 p.m. on Saturday night.
