THUNDER BAY – Andrew Wilkins says it’s not yet time to start pounding on the panic button.
But after three straight home-ice losses and no room for error in the standings, the Lakehead Thunderwolves coach has to at least be hovering over it.
Like Friday night, the T-Wolves jumped in front of the Wilfred Laurier Golden Hawks in Saturday’s rematch, but gave up a trio of unanswered tallies and dropped a 3-1 decision, disappointing more than 3,300 on hand to watch the game on Indigenous Night at Fort William Gardens.
The night before they gave up four straight to the Golden Hawks (8-11-2), who climbed to within a point of Lakehead in the OUA West, the Thunderwolves just barely hanging onto a shot at the playoffs.
The top five teams in each conference get automatic berths and the sixth- and seventh-place teams will tangle in a play-in game for the final postseason spot.
“I think we’re far away from that,” Wilkins said, asked if the word panic is being discussed.
“I liked the way we played tonight. I thought we did a lot of good things with controlled emotion, which is when we get the most out of our group.
“We fell a little bit short, obviously, but we’ll move onto the next game. One game at a time.”
It’s not the outcome they were looking for or expecting, said defenceman Troy Williams, his team struggling to score, with just four goals in their last three outings, all of them home-ice losses.
“It’s frustrating, but I think the second and third period tonight shows us what games are going to be coming down the stretch, especially battling for those final playoff spot. Every game is going to be a battle. Props to them, they were blocking shots and whatever it took to win those two points,” said Williams, who wore his spirit name, Wasbishi Gaibo, on his nameplate, the Wolves wearing specially designed jerseys for Indigenous Night.
Lakehead outshot Wilfred Laurier 34-16 over the final two periods, but couldn’t put the puck past Golden Hawks goaltender Ventsislav Shingarov, their lone goal coming on the power play in the opening period, courtesy of Nicholas DeGrazia.
Laurier evened the score with a power-play goal of their own, Declan Graham notching his first of the season and the two teams hit the break deadlocked at a goal apiece.
Isaac Sooklal and Patrick Brown, who had a pair in Friday’s win, scored 79 seconds apart on LU goaltender Max Wright, midway through the second, giving them all the offence the Golden Hawks would need.
Spencer Blackwell had a pair of breakaway chances minutes apart in the latter half of the period, but Shingarov stopped both backhand attempts to maintain his team’s two-goal lead.
Blackwell hit the outside of the post in the third.
Wilkins pulled Wright with two minutes to go, but the puck stayed out.
“I think we have a lot of guys who can produce. We’ve done it in the past. I have tons of confidence in our group. We’re generating a lot of high-quality chances. Once we burst the bubble a little bit, I think it will come.”
Lakehead takes to the road next weekend for a pair in Guelph and don’t return home until Feb. 2 when Windsor arrives in town for the first of two. They’ll wrap against Nipissing at home on Feb. 9.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Lakehead, DeGrazia 8 (Van Den Hurk, Van Unen) 12:45 pp. 2. Wilfred Laurier, Graham 1 (Reimer, Kilbourne) 15:40 pp. Penalties: Giunta WLU (unsportsmanlike conduct) 8:05, Reimer WLU (slashing) 11:41, McNeill LAK (tripping) 15:35.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3. Wilfred Laurier, Sooklal (Ali) 9:19 pp. 4. Wilfred Laurier, Brown (Graham, Sparkes) 10:38. Penalties: Blackwell LAK (slashing) 8:35, Giunta WLU (tripping) 14:45, Skooklal WLU (interference) 17:07.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: None. Penalties: None
GAME DATA – SOG – Wilfred Laurier 16-9-5-30, Lakehead 8-18-16-38; Power plays (goals-chances) – Wilfred Laurier (2-2), Lakehead (1-4); Goaltenders – Wilfred Laurier: Ventsislav Shingarov, Lakehead: Max Wright; A: 3,314.
