THUNDER BAY – If the Lakehead Thunderwolves have a hope of making the playoffs this season, they’re going to need to show resiliency in the face of adversity.
The Thunderwolves showed Wednesday night they’re capable of erasing deficits.
Powered by a Jake Wright hat trick, Lakehead erased an early two-goal deficit to battle back for a 6-4 non-conference victory over the Guelph Gryphons at the Fort William Gardens in the annual Christmas Challenge in honour of Jim Johnson.
“We’ve been there before. We’ve been down a couple of goals, most of the games we’ve played this year we’ve been down goals,” veteran forward Kelin Ainsworth said. “You just have to stay positive. We know we can put the puck in the net once we get rolling.”
While the win, which completes the series sweep against the defending Queen’s Cup champion Gryphons who are currently perched in second in the OUA West, won’t provide any immediate relief in the standings the Thunderwolves are hoping it will generate positive momentum.
The Thunderwolves are residing at the bottom of the 10-team division, six points out of the eighth and final playoff spot.
Lakehead head coach Bill McDonald said pulling off wins in the two games sets an example for the rest of the way.
“We’ve just got to worry about ourselves. We can scoreboard watch all we want but it doesn’t matter if we don’t win,” he said. That’s the attitude we’re taking. We’re talking about winning a faceoff or the first shift and hopefully the game.”
Looking to avenge Tuesday night’s defeat, Guelph drew first blood with a pair of markers with Stephen Hiff and Dylan Gilbert scoring 32 seconds apart, the latter with a harmless looking shot that found room through Thunderwolves goalie Devin Green.
Things briefly turned around later in the period, especially after Wright notched his first of the game to get Lakehead on the board.
The Gryphons restored the two-goal edge with less than three minutes to play after a shot from Lenny Fabbri deflected off Green and into the net.
“I didn’t like the commitment in terms of physicality. I thought we were lazy. They had too many odd man rushes and we weren’t skating,” McDonald said of the first period effort.
“We had a little meeting after the first period and I thought we got better.”
Wright made his mark in the second period, completing the hat trick to pull Lakehead even heading into the third.
After feeling snake bitten throughout the first half, the Thunderwolves got a big break in the early stages of the third after Billy Jenkins directed a pass toward the net and it deflected off a Guelph stick and into their own net for Lakehead’s first lead of the affair.
However, Guelph drew level with a Rob De Fulviis equalizer, Austin McDonald put Lakehead in front for good with the go-ahead goal with less than six minutes to play.
Carson Dubchak provided insurance 28 seconds later, rocketing a slap shot past Gryphons keeper Keith Hamilton.
Claw marks: The Wolves improve to 32-8-2 all-time against Guelph…Wright’s hat trick was the first time a Lakehead player accomplished the feat this season…Lakehead resumes the regular season next weekend when they host the Carleton Ravens.
