Wolves drop fourth straight

Joel Scherban has said all season long he wants his hockey team to be peaking when the playoffs arrive.

But he’s rapidly running out of time as his club continues to pile up losses without captain Jordan Smith and leading point-getter Matt Caria, who are in Turkey playing for Team Canada at the World University Games.

The Wolves lost their fourth straight without the duo on Friday night, falling 4-2 to the last-place York Lions, a game that saw the Lions score on their first shot and never trail the rest of the way.

“We’re in a tough streak here. For the most part we’ve competed and we’ve had lots of opportunities, but we haven’t capitalized,” Scherban said.

“It’s starting to wear on everyone in the room. We came out tonight and the first 25 seconds of that first shift were great. We were in their end, we had a scoring opportunity and they come back and we make a bad play off their breakout and it’s in the back of our net and kind of deflates our team.”

With just three games left in the regular season the Thunderwolves, who fell from the national top 19 this week, are caught in a funk, Scherban said the players have to find a way to turn things around in a hurry.

At 14-9-2 and third in the OUA West Division, they could realistically fall as far as fifth by next weekend’s end, should their slide continue, and lose home-ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.

Scherban knows it’s serious.

“It’s tough. A lot of the games we lost lately felt like we could have won, we should have won. Tonight was disappointing. I felt like we didn’t deserve to win. We were intense for 20 minutes, but in this league you can’t win when you’re playing well for 20 minutes, working hard for 20 minutes,” Scherban said.

The Lions (9-16-1), on the contrary have little to play for but pride and showing they belong on the roster next year.

Coach Jim Wells, with 18 players in their first or second seasons, called the win – York’s second of the year over Lakehead in three outings – a real development for a young squad, especially with it coming at Fort William Gardens, never an easy place to play.

“One of the things our team has had a problem doing is winning on the road. To get our second road win is really a character gut-check win,” Wells said.

Scoring 29 seconds into the game, as rookie Adam Stuart did on Lakehead starter Alex Dupuis, doesn’t hurt.

It set the tone for what was to come, Wells said.

“Our goal was to get the first goal. When we got the first goal, we knew that they don’t play a lot from behind as a team,” said the second-year coach. “With some key players not here and hurt, that was our strategy, to try to get the first goal and get a jump and then hopefully frazzle them and get them tight so they couldn’t get back in the game.”

Victor Anilane had a great chance in the first to draw the Wolves even, but couldn’t convert a Jadran Beljo feed on York goalie David Blair’s doorstep.

Ben Alavie waited all of 96 seconds into the second period to make it 2-0 York, picking up a huge rebound and firing it past Dupuis.

The LU netminder lasted about a dozen more minutes between the pipes, though the goal that chased him from the game in favour of Kyle Moir, who might or might not return to the Wolves next season.

Lakehead forward Andrew Wilkins was caught without a stick for most of the play, then got caught in a pile-up in front of Dupuis as Orillia’s MacKenzie Micks shoved the puck home and the Lions took a 3-0 lead.

York blue-liner Jeff Matheson potted his first of the season five minutes into the third, a period dominated by Lakehead, who outshot their opponent 22-12.

Beljo was the first to put the Wolves on the board, scoring his first in a Thunderwolves uniform on a penalty shot nine minutes into the final frame.

Lakehead found itself on a pair of lengthy two-man advantages as the period wore on, but couldn’t convert either time. They did, however, score a shorthanded goal when Adam Sergerie’s wild pass in front of Blair’s net bounced of Mitch Maunu’s chest and into the Lions net with five minutes to go.

Trevor Gamache had LU’s best chance to score down the stretch, but Blair came up big from his stomach, stopping the rookie forward from point-blank range, with Moir on the bench in favour of an extra attacker.

Claw marks: Smith and Caria will take on Russia in Saturday’s semifinal at the World University Games in Ezurum, Turkey ... Smith, Andy Zulyniak, Brock McPherson and departing fourth-year senior Pierre-Marc Guilbault will be honoured for their service during the team’s first home playoff date.

First period
Scoring: York, Stuart 7 (Micks, Matheson) 0:29. Penalties: Menard LAK, Short YRK (unsportsmanlike conduct) 5:33, Menard LAK (holding), Sergerie LAK (roughing), Brand YRK (roughing, holding) Hohmann YRK (roughing) 9:49, Hohamann YRK (interference) 12:17, McDonald LAK (slashing) 17:23

Second period
Scoring: 2. York, Alavie 1 (Grespan) 1:36. 3. York, Micks 10 (Thomson) 13:14. Penalties: Thomson YRK (slashing) 9:02, Hogg LAK (hooking) 11:09, Messier YRK (cross checking) 18:57.

Third period
Scoring: 4. York, Matheson 1 (Stuart, Short) 4:45. 5. Lakehead, Beljo 1 (penalty shot) 9:01. 6. Lakehead, Maunu 3 (Sergerie) 15:00 sh. Penalties: Menard LAK (roughing), Matheson YRK (unsportsmanlike conduct) 2:08, Beljo LAK (cross checking) 5:42, Gill YRK (highsticking) 6:39, Zulyniak LAK (high sticking) 8:23, Jones YRK (unsportsmanlike conduct) 9:01, Gill YRK (high sticking) 9:31. Micks YRK (cross checking) 10:51, Hyvarinen LAK (interference) 13:28, Sagert LAK (cross checking), Quesnele LAK (slashing) 16:11

Game Data – SOG – York 4-13-12-29, Lakehead 8-4-22-34; Power plays (goals-chances) – York (0-8) Lakehead (0-7); Goaltenders – York: David Blair, Lakehead: Alex Dupuis (11 shots, eight saves), Kyle Moir (13:14 second); A: 2,861.