THUNDER BAY -- By all accounts, the first half is one the Lakehead Thunderwolves would like to forget.
Accustomed to a steady diet of top 10 rankings and near misses, and months removed from a one-game playoff for a berth at nationals, a bevy of injuries and lack of concentration in their own end has the city’s No. 1 hockey team struggling just to make the OUA playoffs.
How the mighty have fallen.
Coach Bill McDonald isn’t one to make excuses, but even he can’t overlook the walking wounded that forced the second-year bench boss to get creative with his lineup at times, turning forwards into defencemen and overusing his No. 2 goalie Justin McDonald as a fill-in for concussed starter Jeff Bosch.
Cody Alcock, Mitch Fillman, Andrew Tessier and Nathan Bruyere also spent time on the sidelines as the Wolves stumbled to a 6-9-2 first-half mark that deposited them in sixth place in the OUA West.
With only eight teams qualifying for post-season play, and teams below them bearing games in hand, Lakehead can’t afford another slow start when the second half opens next month, Bill McDonald said.
He’s also hoping for a little better luck in the new year.
“I’m not one to make excuses, but obviously it’s pretty tough when you have some forwards playing on defence for two and three weeks straight,” he said.
The numbers show it wasn’t effective.
Compared to last season, when the Thunderwolves were a top-13 team defensively across Canadian Interuniversity Sport, LU is a bottom-feeder in 2014-15, their 4.21 goals against average ranked 31at of 35 teams.
That’s about 1.38 more goals per game than they allowed a season ago.
It more than half-goal-a-game jump the offence experienced year-to-year.
The coach, whose team in January will get former third-round NHL draft pick Justin Sefton to anchor the blue-line, called an improved defensive effort his No. 1 priority heading into Christmas.
“If you look at our game, we seem to be able to score goals at times, but we gave up way too many shots (673) and probably way too many goals at times,” Bill McDonald said.
“I think our mindset over the break and getting prepared for the second-half, is to maybe keep the shots down and the goals down.”
Forward Carson Dubchak, who has a emerged as one of the Wolves go-to players playing alongside younger brother Brennen and rookie E.J. Faust, didn’t mince words. The first half was a disappointment, but he thinks they can improve going forward.
“We ran into some injuries. I’m not making excuses, but I think that was a big part of it. We were struggling to get guys into the lineup and had a lot of forwards playing D,” said Dubchak, who hits the post-Christmas break with 11 points in 19 contests.
“We still battled hard and just showed we didn’t give up. Yes, we lost some games that we shouldn’t have, but going into the second half we just have to realize those are games that we can’t be losing. And I think if we do that we will able to turn it around and take a playoff spot.”
Getting Bosch back would help take the pressure off Justin McDonald, who looked strong at times, but was also allowed five or more goals on six separate occasions.
Bill McDonald, however, isn’t counting on his No. 1 netminder returning, adding if the situation doesn’t improve, he might be forced to seek out a full-time replacement.
The Wolves will take on the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs in non-conference play on Jan. 2 and Jan. 3, and open second-half play the following weekend on the road against Nipissing.
