Late McDonald goal stops LU slide

The slump is over, at least for one night.

Ryan McDonald scored the go-ahead goal at 19:02 of the third period on Friday and Brennan Menard added an empty netter as time ran out as the Lakehead Thunderwolves ended a five-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the host Brock Badgers.

Andrew Wilkins and Jake Carrick also scored for Lakehead (17-8-0), which guaranteed itself home-ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs and need one win in its remaining three games to clinch second in the OUA West.

Waterloo, which entered Friday tied with the Wolves for second, fell 5-1 to Western to fall two points behind.

Wilkins started the offense rolling at 3:23 of the opening stanza, potting a shorthanded goal past Brock goalie Kurt Jory.

Jordan Gignac evened the score on the power play, the only goal of the second, and then Kaine Geldart pushed the Badgers ahead 7:34 into the third, but Carrick tied it two minutes later with his seventh of the season.

Lakehead travels to London, Ont. on Saturday to take on Western, a team that has swept the season series to date, shutting out the Wolves in three straight contests.