THUNDER BAY – Daniel Del Paggio knows how to break out of a goal-scoring slump.
After going nine goals without lighting the lamp, the Thunder Bay-born forward provided all the offence the Lakehead Thunderwolves would need, notching a natural hat trick to help his team fend off the visiting Laurier Golden Hawks 3-2 on Friday night at Fort William Gardens.
“Thanks for reminding me,” he said with a sly smile, when told his last goal came on Oct. 11.
“I was still getting lots of chances and our line was scoring, so I wasn’t getting too worked up about it. I knew eventually it would come because our line’s been getting tons of chances. I’ve been a little bit snake-bitten, so I just started shooting the puck a little bit more and was fortunate they went in tonight.”
Del Paggio who doubled his season output to six goals with Friday’s effort, said it might be a career first.
“I’ve never scored a natural hat trick and then won the game by a goal. It’s pretty cool, but at the end of the day, we got the win and to boot I got the hatty.”
Thunderwolves coach Andrew Wilkins, whose team climbed back above .500 at 7-6-2, said he wasn’t too worried about Del Paggio’s offensive output, not just past the midway point of the campaign.
The effort was always there, just not necessarily the results.
“He’s been good for us all year, obviously,” Wilkins said. “He always seems to generate offence. I think he had three goals coming into tonight. It was good for him to get three. I think he was the first guy to tell you he was due.”
It was also a break-out night for Thunder Bay goaltender Brock Aiken, pressed into duty with Nic Renyard sidelined with an undisclosed injury until after Christmas.
Aiken made 37 stops in picking up his first career OUA victory, including a huge point-blank save on Laurier’s Connor Graham late in the third, kicking aside the potential game-tying goal.
On any other night he’d have probably deserved the No. 1 star, an honour that went to Del Paggio instead, Tomas Soustal and his three-helper night taking No. 2.
“It feels really good, actually,” said Aiken, named the Superior International Junior Hockey League goaltender of the year last season.
“Those last five minutes or so were going by really slow.”
More importantly, it was a big win for the team, against a 3-9-2 Laurier team mired in the OUA West basement.
“Their record doesn’t really reflect how they play. They work hard and go to the final buzzer and that’s what Wilks was preaching all week,” Aiken said.
Laurier scored first, Kyle Jenkins beating Aiken midway through the first. With the anticipation building – it was the annual teddy bear toss after all – Del Paggio finally struck with a minute to go in the first, burying it past Laurier’s Matt Williams to even the score and send a sea of stuffies flying onto the ice.
He put the Wolves in front for good, again on the power play, four minutes into the second, the Golden Hawks caught with too many men on the ice, then doubled the Lakehead lead three minutes and change into the third.
Neil Aird would add a second Laurier goal at 12:19 of the third to wrap up the scoring.
“They scored two power play goals and that really was the difference in the game, as far as the final score,” said Laurier’s Thunder Bay-born coach, Greg Puhalski. “I thought the final 30 minutes of the game we played a lot better and controlled territorially, at least and had some great opportunities. Their goalie made some big saves at the right time.”
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Laurier, Jenkins 3 (MacLean Dybowski) 10:22. 2. Lakehead, Del Paggio 4 (Soustal, Larson) 19:00 pp. Penalties: Dybowski LAU (holding) 5:58, Hetherington LAU (boarding) 1-“43, Sorrentno LAU (slashing) 18:23.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3. Lakehead, Del Paggio 5 (Soustal, Larson) 4:03. Penalties: Bench minor LAU (too many men) 0:36, Laframboise LAK (hooking) 1:28, Bench minor LAU (too many men, served by Sorrentino) 2:50,
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 4. Lakehead, Del Paggio 6 (King, Soustal) 3:24. 5. Laurier, Aird (McJannet) 12:19. Penalties:
GAME DATA – SOG – Laurier 10-16-13-39, Lakehad 14-12-9-35; Power plays (goals-chances) – Laurier (0-1), Lakehead (2-5); Goaltenders – Laurier: Matt Williams, Lakehead: Brock Aiken; A: 2,331.
