THUNDER BAY – It was like a different team skated out onto the Fort William Gardens ice than the night before.
The Lakehead Thunderwolves men’s hockey team, mired in a five-game winless slide, dominated both ends of the ice on Saturday night against the Brock Badgers, a last-second goal that slipped past LU goaltender Max Wright the lone blemish on a near-perfect performance.
The T-Wolves scored once with the man advantage and once again while a man down and cruised to a 4-1 win, picking up a crucial two points and climbing back above .500 at 5-4-2.
With only six teams from each division making the post-season, the Wolves couldn’t afford to keep piling up losses, not even this early in the OUA season.
“It’s huge. Obviously we only play 27 games, so it’s not a lot. With only six teams making the playoffs, every game is huge, so it was really important that we got off that losing streak tonight,” said Griffen Fox, noting his team came out strong and never looked back.
“I think that’s exactly it. We just played a full 60. I think last night we played a really good third, really desperate, and I think that’s how we played tonight for the whole three periods. Everyone was going, which was nice.”
Fox was the architects of the Thunderwolves shorthanded goal, their second in as many nights while playing a man short.
Special teams changes continued to work, he said. In addition to Fox’s goal, his third of the season, the Wolves had a pair of shorthanded breakaways, including a Greg Smith chance just ahead of the green light coming on late in the second.
“That was a big emphasis in practice this week,” Fox said. “We know it’s an important part of the game. Our coaches always preach that penalty kill and power play can win you games. We practiced it a lot this week, changed a few things up and it seemed to work.”
LU’s first goal of the night came just 2:19 after the opening puck drop.
Joe Mack made a great defensive play to keep the puck in the Badgers zone and dished it off to rookie Olivier Pouliot, who pumped it past Brock goaltender Mario Peccia. Mack doubled the lead five minutes and change later and the Thunderwolves took a 2-0 lead to the second.
Fox scored the lone goal of the period and the T-Wolve added to their advantage again in the third, Keighan Gerrie skating in over the blue-line and launching a missile that sailed over Peccia’s blocker-hand shoulder and into the top of the net, the LU lead now 4-0.
Wight appeared to be in line for the shutout, but Fort Frances native Cole Tymkin had other ideas and kept pressing, rewarded with 13.5 seconds left in regulation, Wright thinking he’d corralled the puck, only to have it trickle past him and over the goal line.
“I’ve just got to laugh at that,” Wright said. “I felt like I had it, but I guess it rolled in. Oh well. I was really happy for the guys and for everyone. It was a great team effort.”
