It's not often a team kills off a nine-minute penalty kill and survives.
Add the Lakehead Thunderwolves to the list. And add Keith Grondin to the Wolves growing list of overtime heroes.
The rookie forward fired a backhander past Windsor's Parker Van Buskirk at 6:04 of overtime as Lakehead took a firm grasp of their OUA West semifinal series, winning the opening game of the best-of-three series 3-2 on the road in WIndsor.
Thomas Frazee, who tied the game 1-1 at 1:44 of the second and gave the Wolves a 2-1 lead 2:50 into the third, scored the other Lakehead goals.
Midway through the second period LU defenceman Mike Quesnele was given the boot, taking a double minor for cross checking and a match penalty for making a kicking motion on the play, putting his team a man short for the rest of the way.
Tom Craig tied the score at 14:54 of the third.
Alex Dupuis made 34 to take the win. Van Buskirk made 32 saves in a losing cause.
In other OUA second round action Wednesday night, Western got past Brock 5-3, McGill scored five unanswered goals to down Ottawa 5-3 and UQTR manhandled Carleton 8-1.
Game 2 between Windsor and Lakehead is scheduled for Friday night at Fort William Gardens.
