Wolves tame Mustangs

They may have looked a lot like the Toronto Maple Leafs, but the Lakehead Thunderwolves sure didn’t play like them – at least in the final 48 minutes of play.

Sporting throwback Nor’Wester jerseys in support of prostate cancer, the Wolves (17-5-2) staked the always tough Western Mustangs (18-6-0) to a 3-0 lead in the opening dozen minutes, but stormed back with six goals of their own in the next 14 minutes of play and went on to win 8-5.

It wasn’t the start the Wolves were looking for, but they’ll take the end result, said the suddenly hot Dan Speer, author of a pair of goals and an assist.

Speer said coach Joel Scherban’s decision to call a timeout and regroup his troops after Geoff Killing scored the third Mustangs goal at the 11:53 mark was the proverbial TSN turning point in what proved to be their sixth straight win.

“He basically just said what everybody else in the rink thought he was going to say. He kind of yelled at us and just said, ‘You guys aren’t playing like you wanted to at all and you’re just kind of going through the motions,’ and to smarten up with the penalties and just get our heads back into the game,” Speer said. “He’s smart, he made a good decision by slowing the game down and got us right back in it.”

Rookie Matt Dias connected first, less than two minutes after the timeout, taking advantage of what he termed a lucky bounce when Western defender Ryan Martinelli kicked the puck into his own net past former U.S. national junior team goalie Josh Unice.

Dias, who has 11 points in eight games, said he’ll take them any way they come.

“That just jump-started the guys and everyone just kind of rolled after that. It was a great effort at the end of the first to tie it up and I think it put them back on their heels, saying OK, this team is for real,” said Dias who had a pair of goals and three assists on the night.

“That was the difference. When we were in Western we had starts like that and we kind of folded. But it showed we can rebound and we can play against the best in the country.”

Scherban said he told his players they came out selfish in both their play and discipline and that they didn’t have the intensity or work ethic needed to win at the OUA level. They got the message loud and clear.

“That’s a great sign. You see that competitiveness. They want to win and they’re not going to shut down when they get down a few goals. They came back and battled hard and got right back in the game,” Scherban said.

The No. 8 Wolves, all but counted out at the start of the month, are now tied with the No. 3 Mustangs for top spot in the OUA’s Western Conference, with four games to go in the regular season.

The greatest challenge still lies ahead, said Dias.

“The next four games are big, we can’t lose one. If we lose one it will cost us first place and I think everyone’s well aware of that.”

Dias said he got a little help from his friends in putting five points on the board.

“I can’t take all the credit. (Matt) Caria and Shandor (Alphonso) played great games and made it easy. Some of the goals were tap-ins and just being at the right spot at the right time,” said Dias, who has six goals and 11 points since joining the team to start the second half.

“It just speaks good about this team. Last night our line wasn’t really going and a different line picked it up. And then today it was our night.”

Alphonso had a goal and an assist playing alongside Dias, while Caria chipped in three helpers, upping his total to a remarkable 16 points in eight games. Everything just seems to be clicking, Dias said.

“With Matt’s creativity and Shandor’s hard work, it just creates so much space for us. There’s always one of us (free) at the end of the play.”

Aaron Snow started the Mustangs attack 49 seconds after the opening faceoff, lifting a backhand shot past Kyle Moir on a 2-on-1 Western break. Scott Aarssen doubled the lead on the power play at the midway point of the first, followed in short order by Killing’s fourth of the season.

Dias’s goal changed LU’s perspective and gave the season-high crowd at Fort William Gardens reason to cheer.

It got even noisier 48 seconds later, at 14:39, when Kris Hogg bashed home a rebound on an odd-man rush into Western territory. Then with the clock under two minutes, Speer evened the score and the momentum had clearly shifted.

The first four minutes of the second were all Lakehead.

Dias made good on Caria’s solo rush down the ice to give the Wolves their first lead of the night at the 2:43 mark of the second, and by 6:07 they were up 6-3, thanks to Alphonso, who chased Unice out of the Western net in favour of Keyvan Hunt, and Mark Soares.

Martinelli blasted his second of the game past Moir to cut the LU lead to one, but Scott Dobben regained the Wolves two-goal advantage, firing a wrist shot into the cage to give LU a 7-5 lead heading into the final period.

Patrick Ouellet had the best chance to score for Western in the third, hitting the post with a shot from afar, but only Speer found paydirt, putting the game away with less than a minute to play.

Claw marks: Once again an injured Brock McPherson (shoulder) was missing in action. Also sitting were defencemen Bryan Wilson and Mike Thibert and forwards Devin Welsh, Arron Alphonso and Brennan Menard. McPherson said he’ll be ready to go come playoff time ... It was Lakehead’s eighth win in its last 11 outings against Western ... UOIT beat York 3-1 on Saturday night to pull into an eighth-place tie with Brock in the race for the eighth and final playoff berth in the OUA Western Conference. In other action Waterloo edged Laurier 4-3 and sits one point behind Western and Lakehead, UQTR doubled Carleton 6-3, Concordia blanked Ottawa 2-0, Toronto snuck past RMC 3-2, Ryerson thumped Queen’s 9-5 and Guelph edged Windsor 3-2.

FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Western, Snow 13 (Baker, Turkiewicz) 0:49. 2. Western, Aarssen 5 (Piva, Lamb) 9:42 pp. 3. Western, Killing  4 (Aarssen, Lamb) 11:53. 4. Lakehead, Dias 6 (Guilbault) 13:51 pp. 5. Lakehead, Hogg 13 (Wilkins, McDonald) 14:39. 6. Lakehead, Speer 6 (Caria, Dias) 18:07. Penalties: Farmanara WES (high sticking) 1:06, McDonald LAK (slashing) 4:11, Caria LAK (goaltender interference) 7:54. Caria LAK (interference) 7:54, Caria LAK (cross checking) 11:32, Swit WES (cross checking) 13:02, Swit WES (hooking) 15:56.  

SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 7. Lakehead, Dias 7 (Caria, Alphonso) 2:43 8. Lakehead, Alphonso 8 (Dias, Caria) 4:08. 9. Western, Martinelli 1 (unassisted) 4:31. 10. Lakehead, Soares 9 (Speer, Maunu) 6:07. 11. Western, Martinelli 2 (Aarssen, Snow) 13:44. 12. Lakehead, Dobben (Hogg, Guilbault) 18:41 pp. Penalties: Sharp WES (hooking) 7:40, Baird LAK (high sticking) 15:34, Swit WES (elbowing) 18:24.  

THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 13. Lakehead, Speer 7 (Dias, Baird) 19:07. Penalties: Sagert LAK (interference) 1:30, Dobben LAK (tripping) 6:23, Ouellet WES (roughing) 10:29, Nemeth WES (hooking) 12:44, McDonald LAK (high sticking) 12:48, Soares LAK (boarding) 14:57, Hogg LAK (unsportsmanlike conduct), Piva WES (roughing), Farmanara WES (interference) 17:16, Maunu LAK (roughing), Sergerie LAK (roughing), Snow WES (roughing), McCann WES (unsportsmanlike conduct), Ouelett WES (unsportsmnlike conduct), Turner  WES (roughing) 19:38

GAME DATA – SOG – Western 11-15-0-0, Lakehead 11-13-0-0; Power plays (goals-chances) – Western (2-9), Lakehead (1-9); Goaltenders – Western: Josh Unice (13 shots, eight saves), Keyvan Hunt (4:08 second), Lakehead: Kyle Moir; A: 3,647.