Quesnele QBs Wolves

Mike Quesnele isn’t the biggest player on the ice, but good things come in small packages.

Make that great things.

The Lakehead Thunderwolves rookie blue-liner scored a pair of goals and added an assist on Saturday night, ensuring his team avoided an 0-2 start on home ice with a convincing 7-3 win over the visiting Waterloo Warriors.

Quesnele, a 13-goal scorer with his hometown Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds a year ago, scored for the third straight night (including an exhibition against Ottawa last weekend), looking a lot like the catalyst from the point the Wolves have been searching for since the departure of Mike Jacobsen and Erik Lodge.

The 21-year-old said the role appears to have been tailor-made for him.

“In my junior career I was a power play guy, so I’m used to it,” he said. “When (coach) Joel (Scherban) brought me in, he said he needed me to do that, so that’s a role I’m ready to accept.”

Scherban, who only added a pair of outsiders to the LU roster this season, said Quesnele is delivering exactly as advertised, at least through four appearances in a Lakehead uniform.

“Our scouting had great reports on him. I was talking to Denny Lambert from Sault Ste. Marie and he told us how great he was going to be. He’s a good all-around player. So we had high expectations for him coming in, and he’s definitely met them so far,” Scherban said.

“He’s extremely skilled. He sees the ice very well. He’s not overly big, but he’s strong on his skates and he’s good at both ends of the ice. He’s great on the power play, but we can also use him to kill penalties.”

Though happy with his entire seven-man blue-line, Scherban said the 5-foot-8 Quesnele brings uniqueness to his defensive corps.

“He adds a new element,” Scherban said.

Blessed with a Howitzer of a shot from the point and a nose for the puck, Quesnele said there was no way the Wolves were going to let the Warriors come into the Gardens and secure the sweep. Not when they knew they left their best effort on the bench in Friday’s 5-4 overtime loss.

“We weren’t too happy with our effort last night, especially on the power play,” Quesnele said. “We thought we got outworked. Tonight we made a lot of good plays. The puck was moving quick. We found the back of the net, and that was really key.”

But it was the Warriors, winners of three straight over the Wolves, who struck first.

Jarrett Schnurr surprised Lakehead’s Kyle Moir, making his first OUA start of the season, at 4:16, firing a shot over the third-year goalie’s right shoulder to give Waterloo (1-1-0) the early lead.

Lakehead’s Andrew Wilkins didn’t take long to respond, pouncing on a turnover in front of Warrior goalie Keaton Hartigan and firing a quick wrist shot into the twine at the 6:53 mark.

Quesnele put the Wolves ahead for good less than 90 second later, taking advantage of the inch or so of space the Warriors allotted him.

“There was a little hole. I jumped in and I just gave Serge (Adam Sergerie) a quick yell and he gave me the puck and just got it off quick and found the back of the net,” Quesnele said.

Kris Hogg added to the Wolves lead just 49 seconds into the middle stanza, managing to blast a wrist shot to Hartigan’s far side, despite a Warrior defender being draped all over him as he dashed down the left side of the Gardens’ ice.

Brock McPherson, with his first of two on the night, made it 4-1 at 2:24, though Schnurr got one back before the period ended to cut the lead to just two.

Unlike Friday, the Wolves didn’t let the Warriors back in this one.

Up two men, Quesnele put the finishing touches on Waterloo with a rocket from the point that all but broke the sound barrier at the 6:22 mark.

Arron Alphonso, with his first of the campaign, and McPherson rounded out the LU scoring.

Chris Ray added a meaningless marker in the final minute of play.

Waterloo coach Brian Bourque said his team made too many mistakes.

“Physically I thought they took it to us for a bit. I felt we responded, but in the third our discipline wasn’t there and we took some penalties, and this is not a team you can take penalties against,” he said.

Lakehead hits the road next weekend for a pair in Windsor, and return home the following weekend to host the Guelph Gryphons.

Here are tonight’s tbnewswatch.com three stars:
Mike Quesnele, Lakehead (2G, 1A)
Brock McPherson, Lakehad (2G)
Andrew Wilkins, Lakehead (1 G)

Claw marks: Healthy scratches for the Wolves were forward Victor Anilane and defenceman Mark Thibert, who sat for a second straight night. As a result SIJHL grad Trevor Gamache was moved onto a line alongside McPherson and Alphonso. Gamache hit the crossbar at the 13:30 mark of the first ... The Wolves were 2-for-11 on the power play and 5-for-6 on the penalty kill ... In other OUA play it was Ryerson over Carleton 5-1, York edged Windsor 3-2, McGill stomped Nipissing 9-4, Ottawa snuck past RMC 4-3, Laurier  beat UOIT 6-4, UQTR demolished Toronto 6-2 and Concordia knocked off Queen’s 8-5.

First period
Scoring: 1. Waterloo Schnurr 1 (Hill, Thorner) 4:16. 2. Lakehead, Wilkins 1 (Menard) 6:53. 3. Lakehead, Quesnele 2 (Sergerie, Caria) 8:20. Penalties: Lewicki WAT (interference) 4:26, Wong WAT (high sticking) 9:01, Welsh LAK, Whitely WAT (unsportsmanlike conduct) 15:51, Ray WAT (tripping) 17:32.

Second period
Scoring: 3. Lakehead, Hogg 2 (Hyvarinen) 0:49. 5. Lakehead, McPherson 1 (Quesnele) 2:24 pp. 6. Waterloo, Schnurr 2 (Hill, Sonnenburg) 5:42 pp. Penalties: Fraser WAT (slashing, unsportsmanlike conduct), Caria LAK (unsportsmanlike conduct) 1:53, McDonald LAK (tripping) 4:34, Fraser WAT (high sticking) 5:56, Lewicki WAT, Caria LAK (unsportsmanlike conduct) 5:58, Gamache LAK (hooking) 11:00, Veysey WAT (tripping) 14:38, Caria LAK (elbowing) 19:11

Third period
Scoring: 7. Lakehead, Quesnele 3 (Sagert) 6:22 pp. 8. Lakehead, Alphonso 1 (unassisted) 9:10. 9. Lakehead, McPherson 2 (Maunu) 16:27.10. Waterloo, Ray1 (Moir, Schwende) 19:36. Penalties: Dileo WAT (slashing) 2:25, Schnurr WAT (slashing) 4:46, Dileo WAT (interference from bench, game misconduct) 5:38, Lewicki WAT (slashing) 9:53, Welsh LAK (roughing), Magill LAK (slashing), Ray WAT (slashing) 12:25, Schwende WAT (holding) 13:50, Quesnele LAK (interference) 18:28.

Game Data – SOG – Waterloo 4-15-6-25, Lakehead 8-13-11-32; Power plays (goals-chances) – Waterloo (1-6) Lakehead (2-11); Goaltenders – Waterloo: Keenan Hartigan, Lakehead: Kyle Moir; A: 2,572.