Wolves eliminated

The inability to score is a sure-fire recipe for an early playoff exit.

Waterloo’s Keaton Hartigan recorded his second straight shutout Friday night, blanking the Lakehead Thunderwolves 3-0 at Fort William Gardens, and sent the OUA West Division’s No. 3 seed packing after the opening round for the first time in team history.

The game marked the end for a quartet of Thunderwolves players, including captain Jordan Smith, who was still sitting in full uniform in the dressing room well after most of his teammates were dressed and headed home one last time.

Forward Brock McPherson, who also played his final game in a Thunderwolves uniform, said it was a hard way to say good-bye.

 “I think if you look at the guys we’ve got in that room. A first-round exit is definitely an underachievement for us and it’s definitely not how we wanted to go out, that’s for sure,” said McPherson, who arrived in Thunder Bay midway through the 2006-07 season.

Boasting the third-best offense in the OUA, Lakehead just couldn’t find a way to beat Hartigan when it counted.

Those are just the breaks hockey delivers, McPherson said.

“Sometimes the hockey gods aren’t giving us the bounces. Tonight we hit a couple of posts, Hartigan made a couple of big save and that’s the way the playoffs go. We ran into a hot goalie and in these best-of-three series, you’ve got to bury your chances.”

Waterloo coach Brian Bourque, whose team was upset a year ago as the division’s No. 2 seed, said he couldn’t have scripted the outcome of the series any better – though admitted he’d have been hard-pressed to convince anyone to admit it had plausibility before the series began.

“We held on for the third and they were flying,” Bourque said. “Some of the saves (Hartigan) made were outstanding. Nothing against their goaltending, but he was unbelievable the whole series.”

Hartigan, a University of Windsor transfer, was unaware the Wolves had never lost in the first round before, though he knew enough to realize the sweep was no easy task.

He was taking none of the credit, despite a 35-save performance.

“Our team was unreal. They kept the shots from the outside, cleared the rebounds. All I really had to do was make the first stops. Even our fourth line, everyone brought it. Everyone bought in and brought it. It was great to see.”

Even in his wildest dreams, back-to-back shutouts never factored into the mix.

“No, they’re pretty talented,” Hartigan said. “I was just pretty grateful for the way it turned out, that’s for sure.”

Playing before a typical less-than-stellar playoff crowd of 2,334, the Wolves and Warriors felt each other out for most of the contest. McPherson hit the upper post at 16:03 of the first, the best scoring chance of the opening stanza.

McPherson said he didn’t think much of it when it happened.

“At the time it was early in the game. But you look back now, if that goes in, maybe the floodgates open and it’s a totally different hockey game. But you can’t dwell on things like that. A fraction of an inch and it’s a 1-1 game going into the third,” McPherson said.

Hartigan left the explanation to fate – and good positioning.

“He just had a seeing-eye shot through a couple of bodies and it hit the post. Maybe I like to say that I had the rest of the net covered, and only left the post, but to have two shutouts in a row is definitely to have luck on your side,” he said.

Josh Schappert, the Warriors leading goal-scorer during OUA play, gave Waterloo the lead for good 31 seconds into the second period, batting home a bouncing puck that beat Alex Dupuis in the LU net.

Early in the third the Warriors appeared to have double their lead, but after some discussion, the officials waved it off. Thirteen seconds late McPherson came close, but though the crowd’s cheer signalled goal, the puck never came close to going in and the teams lined up for a faceoff deep in Waterloo territory.

Jadran Beljo and Ryan McDonald teamed up on a two-on-one late in the period, but Beljo’s backhander on the doorstep was easily turned aside by Hartigan. Seconds later Chris Ray, who also had an assist, beat Dupuis to make it 2-0.

An empty netter with one tick on the clock by Cody Fraser wrapped up the scoring for the Warriors, who were out-shot 18-6 in the final stanza.

“We threw everything we had at them. The hockey gods haven’t been on our side in awhile and we haven’t been getting bounces,” said Thunderwolves coach Joel Scherban. “In the third period we played 20 minutes in their end and got 18 shots and I don’t know how many quality scoring chances. We just couldn’t bury it tonight and we didn’t win the game.”

Claw marks: Kyle Moir and Andy Zulyniak were the other Wolves honoured before the game who won’t be back next year ... Moir’s brother Tyler is a second-year forward with Waterloo ... A total of three penalties, two minors and a misconduct to Lakehead’s Kris Hogg, were called in the contest.

First period
Scoring: No scoring. Penalties: Maunu LAK (cross checking) 14:17.

Second period
Scoring: 1. Waterloo, Schappert  2 (Ray) 0:31. Penalties: Hogg LAK (misconduct) 10:44, Ray WAT (hooking) 17:56.

Third period
Scoring: 2. Waterloo, Ray 1 (unassisted) 17:37. 3. Waterloo, Fraser 1 (unassisted) 19:59 en. Penalties: none.

Game Data – SOG – Waterloo 5-8-0-0, Lakehead 8-9-18-35; Power plays (goals-chances) – Waterloo (0-1), Lakehead (0-1); Goaltenders – Waterloo: Keaton Hartigan, Lakehead: Alex Dupuis; A: 2,334.