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Moving on

Matt Dias netted an overtime goal to complete a hat trick and win the series for the Lakehead Thunderwolves over the Guelph Gryphons Friday night.
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Matt Dias gets a pat from teammates after scoring in overtime Saturday night. (Jamie Smith )

Matt Dias netted an overtime goal to complete a hat trick and win the series for the Lakehead Thunderwolves over the Guelph Gryphons Friday night.

Dias streaked from the blueline on the left side of the Fort William Gardens, danced around Guelph’s Pat Campbell, dodged another Gryphon defender coming from behind and buried the puck past goalie Scott VanBommel to give the Wolves a 5-4 victory over the Guelph at 4:19 in the first overtime period. Dias scored his first three goals of the OUA playoffs during the game.

"A hat trick feels great. The OT winner obviously feels even better," the freshman forward said. "It just finally felt good to start scoring again."

It’s the second overtime win in a row for the Wolves over Guelph. They move on to play the University of Western Ontario Mustangs in the OUA West Division Finals after Western’s 3-1 win over the Windsor Lancers Friday.

Guelph’s Matt Lyall drew first blood on the night at 4:02 in the first firing a shot over Lakehead goalie Alex Dupuis’ shoulder. Lakehead out shot Guelph 14-8 in the first, which included hitting three goal posts, but couldn’t put one in. Lakehead’s head coach Joel Scherban said the game was a hard fought one for both teams.

"Kind of an odd game. I give Guelph so much credit they’re a really good team right now," Scherban said. "I like to see our guys rise to the occasion that’s two big overtime games in a row and we get to move on. That’s the main thing."

Dias opened second period scoring, capitalizing on a power play and a lucky bounce at 5:36 to tie the game at one a piece. Scherban said after that goal, the Wolves coaching staff was speculating that the point would open the floodgates for Dias.

"Sometimes it takes a lucky goal to open them," said Scherban. "It’s great to see hopefully that continues."

After battling back and forth for the remainder of the second and into the third, the teams were tied at 3-3 until Guelph’s Kris Belan put one past Dupuis while all alone in front of the net to make it 4-3.

"We gave them a couple chances and they made us pay," Dias said. "We’re lucky enough to have the talent that we do to be able to bounce back after breakdowns."

The talent came as Lakehead’s Scott Dobben scored his third of the playoffs at 18:58 capitalizing on a Matt Ciara rebound to tie the game, bring the 2,284 fans to their feet and take the game to overtime.

The Wolves meet Western at the Fort William Gardens Wednesday night. Scherban said his team won’t make any major adjustments to their game and will be studying film on Western this week to prepare. Dias said the series will be a tough one. He said he’s happy to be playing the first game at home.

"We’re tough to play on our own rink and Western knows that after the last time they were here," said Dias. "We’re expecting a really hard fought game."





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