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Wolves squander 3-1 second period lead, give up second place in OUA West

The offence was there, but the concentration got lost somewhere between the Lakehead Thunderwolves dressing room and the ice.
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Lakehead defenceman Mitch Maunu celebrates his first goal of 2010-11 Friday night at Fort William Gardens. (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
The offence was there, but the concentration got lost somewhere between the Lakehead Thunderwolves dressing room and the ice.

After building a 3-1 lead with a trio of goals less than two minutes apart in the second period at Fort William Gardens on Friday night, the Wolves played like Patsy Cline, fell to pieces and wound up dropping a 6-4 decision to division-rival Laurier.

In a game that saw LU’s Joel Scherban attempt to pull a rabbit out of his coaching hat, inserting stay-at-home-defenceman Jordan Smith at right wing alongside Kris Hogg and Brock McPherson, the Wolves sputtered defensively after a scoreless first, couldn’t hang on to the lead and went down to defeat, their second straight OUA loss.

Smith, who potted his second goal of the season to tie the game 4-4 with slightly less than three minutes to play in the middle stanza, said it’s been awhile since he played the wing, but it was something he experimented with coming out of junior.

”In Portland, in the American League I played about half of my 55 games at right wing. So I’m comfortable out there,” the Sault Ste. Marie native said.

“I was on that line all week. That definitely helped me getting a little bit adjusted to what I need to be doing out there to do my job out there. I feel perfectly comfortable. I’m just here to do whatever Joel needs me to do and help this team win.”

The Wolves (4-4-1) can ill-afford a loss in Saturday’s rematch, he added, saying he agrees it might be Scherban’s way of trying to shape up a lacklustre team that just can’t seem to put a sustained hot streak together. 

“I think he wanted me up there to generate a spark and really get into the D and make it a hard night on the opposing defencemen,” Smith said. “I felt I did that for the most part. But the bottom line is you can’t allow six goals at home and expect to win a game. We have to tighten up our defensive play and come out with a little more urgency tomorrow.”

The Smith move was an attempt to find a little more grit and energy on the forecheck, and it produced mixed results, Scherban said.

“He forechecks hard and he’ll create some ice for his line-mates out there and hopefully it’s a veteran line that can produce,” Scherban said.

Just how long the experiment lasts is up in the air, he added.

“We’ll see how it goes and we’ll go from there. It could be one more game, it could be a period. It could be longer.”

Scherban, whose smile has been a rare entity in 2010-11, said his players still haven’t learned what it takes to play a consistent 60 minutes of hockey.

“We’re a mentally weak team right now. Too many things bother our players and distract our players from the game that shouldn’t,” Scherban said. “Usually when we’re ahead and things are going well, we continue to go very well. But when we fall behind and we don’t get some bounces or a few of our players don’t score on opportunities, we seem to unravel a bit.”

The Wolves missed a pair of glorious opportunities in the scoreless first. With just over six minutes to go and LU up a man, Smith was sent in alone on Laurier goalie Ryan Daniels, but he couldn’t corral the puck and it bounced out of harm’s way.

Ditto for Matt Caria a few minutes later, this time with the Wolves shorthanded.

It was a different story in the second period.

Laurier's Thomas Middup broke open the scoring at the 3:49 mark. His power-play goal opened the floodgates, and in less than 14 minutes eight of the game’s 11 goals were on the board.

Ryan McDonald, with his team-leading sixth, Mitch Maunu, with his first and Andrew Wilkins pushed LU to a 3-1 edge. But Ben Skinner and Jordan Bonneville took care of the Laurier deficit, scoring four minutes apart on a less-than-sharp Alex Dupuis.

Middup’s second of the game gave the Golden Hawks a 4-3 advantage.

Kain Allicock scored the winner exactly one minute into the third.

Matt Caria appeared to have tied the game at the 8:13 mark of the third, but on-ice officials waved it off, saying it was directed into the net by an LU glove.

Colin Williams iced it at 16:09, though with Dupuis on the bench Lakehead’s Mike Quesnele did sound one last rallying cry in the final minute, blasting a shot past Daniels to make it a one-goal game when the horn sounded.

“After the first period we were lucky it was just 0-0,” said Laurier’s first-year coach Greg Puhalski, a Thunder Bay native and former Boston Bruins draft pick, whose team improved to 5-2-1. “I thought we played a poor first period. But Daniels played really well and gave us at least a chance.

“The second period was kind of chaotic on both ends. I thought both teams were real sloppy. And in the third period I thought we played pretty well, except for the last couple of minutes where we didn’t take care of the puck.”

Claw marks: Laurier LW Ryan Bellows is the nephew of former NHLer Brian Bellows, who scored 485 goals over 17 seasons, winning a Stanley Cup with Montreal in 1993 ... Forward Andy Hyvarinen was a healthy scratch for the Wolves. Arron Alphonso sat with a injury suffered against Guelph, his third straight miss ... Lakehead was 1-5 on the power play, while Laurier scored on twice in six opportunities ... Smith was booed when named third star, though it was more a reflection on the team than the player.

First period
Scoring
:No scoring. Penalties: Williams LAU (roughing) 4:53. Bellows LAU (hooking) 13:28, Hogg LAK (high sticking) 17:29, Allicock LAU (hooking) 19:33.
 
Second period
Scoring
: 1. Laurier Middup 4 (Rizk)3:49 pp. 2. Lakehead, McDonald 6 (Caria, Quesnele) 4:20. 3. Lakehead, Maunu 1 (Caria, Sergerie) 5:43. 4. Lakehead, Wilkins 3 (unassisted) 6:04. 5. Laurier, Skinner 2 (Bernardi, Van De Bospoort) 6:24. 6. Laurier, Bonneville 1 (Sinfield) 10:03 pp. 7. Laurier, Middup 5 (Bellows, Magistrale) 13:29. 8. Lakehead, Smith 2 (McPherson) 17:20. Penalties: Menard LAK (roughing) 3:22, Welsh LAK (slashing) 8:23,Van De Bospoort LAU (hooking) 10:29.

Third period
Scoring: 9. Laurier, Allicock 2 (Magistrale) 1:00. 10. Laurier, Williams 2 (Bernardi, Sinfield) 16:09. 11. Lakehead, Quesnele 5 (Caria) 19:28 pp. Penalties: Maunu LAK (slashing) 5:45, Good LAU (slashing) 8:38. Bench minor LAK (unsportsmanlike conduct, served by McDonald) 9:44, Bernardi LAU (slashing) 18:16, Bench minor LAK (too many men on the ice, served by Hogg 19:47.

Game DataSOG – Laurier 6-16-13-35, Lakehead 11-16-13-40; Power plays (goals-chances) – Laurier (2-6), Lakehead (1-5); Goaltenders – Laurier: Ryan Daniels, Lakehead: Alex Dupuis; A: 3,013.

 



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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