Nine in a row

 
Tired as they might have been, the Windsor Lancer’s didn’t know when to quit.

It almost won them a hockey game.

Unfortunately the Lancers, who hadn't played a game in 33 days before Friday, just didn’t have the legs to pull it off on Saturday night, falling 4-2 to their heated up hosts.  The Lakehead Thunderwolves captured their ninth straight OUA victory on the strength of a pair of Brock McPherson goals -- and several near misses that could have added two, three or even four tallies to that total.

McPherson, who has 11 goals in league play, said the last thing they wanted to do was take the Lancers – a team that beat them twice on the road in October – for granted.

“As a team we knew they were going to come out harder tonight than last night. We put a pretty good effort out there and fortunately I was lucky enough to get a couple of bounces my way, get a couple of quick goals in the first two periods and we just kept battling the rest of the game,” said McPherson, the Wolves fifth-year assistant captain.

No more was that effort on display than Ryan McDonald’s third-period goal, which came less than two minutes after Windsor’s Mike Lombardi cut the LU lead to one, beating Wolves goalie Kyle Moir when Lakehead suffered a lapse in defensive coverage and Lombardi found himself with plenty of net to fire away at.

McDonald, however, responded, scoring one of the gutsiest goals in recent memory.

After breaking his stick on a power play shot, McDonald raced back to the LU bench, grabbed a replacement stick, stole the puck, fed it to Matt Caria, took the return pass, dodged a Windsor defender and slammed a wrist shot behind Lancer goalie Jim Watt.

“My first thought was it’s great to have skilled guys like that on the team,” said Thunderwolves coach Joel Scherban. “There’s not too many guys in the league who could have scored that goal.”

Seventy-two seconds later Brennan Menard put it away, beating Watt on a breakaway to make it 4-1. Windsor’s Mark Thorburn, with the Lancers on a power play and Watt on the bench in favour of an extra attacker – he was pulled with just under three minutes to go – rounded out the scoring before time ran out.

The win couldn’t have been more timely for Lakehead, a team that is chasing the Western Mustangs and about to embark on a two-game trip to London next weekend that should determine whether or not the Wolves have what it takes to win the West Division.

The Mustangs fell 2-1 to Laurier on Saturday, the first time they’ve lost in regulation in 2010-11, allowing Lakehead to climb to within four points – the exact number of points at stake when they do battle.

“With a sweep down there next weekend we have a tie for us in first place, so it’s huge for us in the final standings,” Scherban said.

First period
Scoring: 1.Lakehead, McPherson 9 (Sergerie, Magill) 14:00. Penalties: M. Lombardi WSR (hooking) 5:27.

Second period
Scoring: 2. Lakehead, McPherson 10 (unassisted) 2:07. Penalties: McCready WSR, Menard LAK (roughing after whistle), Gamache LAK (high sticking) 9:01, M. Lombardi WSR (high sticking) 19:35.

Third period
Scoring: 3. Windsor, M. Lombardi (Steingraber) 6:51. 4. Lakehead, McDonald 12 (Caria, Quesnele) 8:37. 5. Lakehead, Menard 5 (Maunu, Wilkins) 9:39. 6. Windsor, Thorburn 4 (Ferry, McCready) 19:03 pp. Penalties: Magill LAK (tripping) 5:40, Lang WSR (tripping) 6:45, Makaric WSR (elbowing)13:09, Welsh LAK (double minor roughing, misconduce) Vandehogen WSR (roughing, misconduct) 17:48, Gillis WSR (slashing) Quesnele LAK (roughing) 19:44.

Game Data – SOG – Windsor 10-6-0-0, Lakehead 13-13-0-0; Power plays (goals-chances) – Windsor (0-3), Lakehead (0-3); Goaltenders – Windsor: Jim Watt, Lakehead: Kyle Moir; A: 2,807.