Thunderwolves hit Christmas break on winning note, downing Western 4-3

Kelin Ainsworth sent the Lakehead Thunderwolves to the Christmas break on a winning note.

The Thunder Bay forward beat Western Mustangs goalie Greg Dodds at 3:19 of the second overtime Saturday night to score the Wolves an upset 4-3 win over the No. 10 team in the nation.

“Three-on-three is kind of different,” Ainsworth said.

“It’s like playing on the outdoor rinks. You’ve just got to make plays and (Mike) Hammond made a good pass to me and crossed the D up and they left me open.”

The win couldn’t have been timelier, the 22-year-old said, his team improving to 6-9-2 in the process, good for sixth place in the 10-team OUA West.

“Yeah, it’s huge,” he said. “It’s nice to have the break after a good win like that. We’re going to get a lot of guys back from injury, so it’ll be a fresh start after the holidays.”

Goalie Justin McDonald, author of 50 saves, couldn’t agree more.

“It feels real good. It’s nice to end on a high note. The first period was a little shaky, we came out a little flat. But after that everyone worked hard and we got a good result tonight so everyone’s happy.”

Lakehead was out-shot by their longtime rival 17-10 in the first and surrendered 19 more shots in the second, but escaped in a 2-2 deadlock, thanks to McDonald’s efforts.

“I felt really good. The first two goals were tough ones. I thought I should have had the last one, but (I) kept us in it. There were lots of shots. Three-on-three, four-on-four in overtime is hard. It can go either way. But we were lucky enough, I made some saves and we put one in at the end there,” McDonald said.

Unlike Friday’s 3-2 loss, it was the Mustangs who scored first in this one, David Corrente’s slap-shot through traffic beating McDonald at 13:36 of the opening stanza, the lone goal of the first.

But the Wolves fought back in the second and tied it six minutes in when E.J. Faust spotted a charging Carson Dubchak from behind the Western net, put it on the tape and Dubchak one-timed it past Dodds to knot the game at a goal apiece.
Two minutes later David Quesnele rifled a shot from between the faceoff circles that Dodds never saw and the Thunderwolves were on top 2-1

It was a lead that lasted all of 72 seconds.

Stephen Gaskin evened the score at 9:16, firing home a cross-ice pass from Trevor Ouellette.

The Mustangs jumped in front at the 8:56 mark of the third, after a giveaway by Lakehead defenceman Nathan Bruyere put the puck on the stick of Julian Cimadamore, who fired a quick wrist shot that McDonald missed.

Lakehead fought back again, and with five minutes to go in regulation, Dubchak buzzed Dodds and beat him on the backhand, the Western goalie lying flat on his back.

“They were really good,” LU coach Bill McDonald said of the Dubchak line, which also includes younger brother Brennen, who had a pair of helpers, as did Faust.

“They just run on pure physicality and energy and hard work. The young Dubber, he’s got a good touch, if you look at throughout his career in junior. He’s pretty fearless.”

The second-year coach acknowledged his team wasn’t great in the first, but praised them for not hanging their heads after Western opened the scoring.

“I don’t think we were ready. I thought we lost a lot of puck battles and stick battles and all kinds of battles. They ran the shots up pretty good. They had us 1-0, but we had a little meeting between the first and second and I thought we got a little better.”

Claw marks: Paid attendance was 2,132 … Mike Quesnele set the team’s all-time penalty mark, called for a dive in the second. He’s got 398 in five seasons, two more than former captain Andrew Brown.