The rivalry has been resurrected.
Led by a pair of first-period Nathan Cull goals, the Lakehead Thunderwolves stunned the visiting Western Mustangs Wednesday night in their OUA playoff opener, downing their long-time arch-nemisis 4-3 at Fort William Gardens.
Cull said it was incredibly important to strike first against the Mustangs in the best-of-three series, facing Games 2 and 3 on the road in London, Ont. on Saturday and Sunday.
"We get to go to London with a bit of swagger. It's nice. We've got a little bit of confidence under our belt and there's no seventh-seed mentality in our minds anymore and its just nice to have an opportunity to take the series," said Cull, whose two-goal performance equalled his regular-season output.
Cull's goals couldn't have been more timely, Lakehead coach Bill McDonald said.
"He's the type of player who goes to the net and made a couple of good plays. That's the type of goals he's got to get. Here's a kid who played major junior and I'm not bashing whatever happened there, but he probably got pigeonholed into a fourth-line role, whereas here he's getting lots of ice time," McDonald said.
"You can see his goals aren't going to be Steven Stamkos, but they're going to be two-footers around the net. He's kicked a few in for us, that's for sure."
Drawing first blood against the Mustangs, in their first playoff battle in five years, gives the Wolves a huge advantage in a short series, McDonald said.
"I guess we've got two cracks at it," he said, acknowledging his squad looked good at times and others not so much.
The second-year coach was impressed with his goaltender, Justin McDonald, pressed into emergency duty once again with No. 1 netminder Jeff Bosch sidelined with yet another head injury.
"I thought Justin played well. He gave us the chance to win and we won. And now we're going to go there and going to try to find a way to win another one."
McDonald made 39 saves on the night, including 13 in the final frame, to backstop the Wolves to the win.
E.J. Faust got the Wolves on the board first at the 8:49 mark of the first. Cull pounded home his own rebound two minutes later, a goal the Western coaches maintained was batted in with a high stick. The goal stood and less than five minutes later Cull was at it again, crashing into Western goalie Greg Dodds after taking the feed from Ryan Magill.
Dodds went down in a heap as the puck bounced past him and had to leave the game with an apparent knee injury, replaced by former Thunder Bay North Stars goalie Marc Nother.
Up 3-0 to start the second, Mike Hammond added another from Nother's doorstep and the rout was on. Or so the 1,781 in attendance thought.
The Mustangs, who finished second in the OUA West, had other ideas.
Trevor Warnaar started the ball rolling at 12:04 of the second and the Wolves carried a 4-1 lead into the third. Trent Ouellette cut the lead to two seven minutes into the final period, then Jake Woraad made it 4-3 with six-and-a-half to go in regulation, firing a wrist shot through traffic from the point with LU's Carson Dubchak serving a five-minute major for a vicious charge against Western's David Corrente.
Dubchak was tossed for his crime.
Western pulled Nother with 1:20 to go, but the Mustangs couldn't capitalize with the extra man.
The Wolves can wrap up the best-of-three series on Saturday night in London, Ont.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Lakehead, Faust 1 (Kaarela) 8:49. 2. Lakehead, Cull 1 (D. Quesnele) 10:56, 3. Lakehead, Cull 2 (Magill) 15:33. Penalties: Paltridge WES (elbowing) 12:32, Faust LAK (tripping) 17:08.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 4. Lakehead, Hammond 1 (A. McDonald) 7:50. 5. Western, Warnaar 1 (Corrente, Schwartz) 12:04. Penalties: DeCoste WES (high sticking), Gilbert LAK (high sticking) 5:04,
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 6. Western, Ouellete 1 (Corrente, MacDonald) 6:49. 7. Western, Micallef 1 () 13:31 pp. Penalties: C. Dubchak LAK (charging, game misconduct, served by Kaarela) 8:54, Sefton LAK, DeCoste WES (unsportsmanlike conduct) 9:15, Gilbert LAK (unsportsmanlike conduct, misconduct), McKee WES (check from behind, misconduct), Salturo WES (roughing after the whistle, served by Kirk) 10:02.
GAME DATA – SOG – Western 11-16-15-42, Lakehead 18-8-10-36; Power plays (goals-chances) – Western (1-2), Lakehead (0-2); Goaltenders – Western: Greg Dodds (15 shots, 12 saves), Marc Nother (15:33, first), Lakehead: Justin McDonald; A: 1,781. (announced).
