2 hours Ago By Leith Dunick
THUNDER BAY – Special teams didn’t do the Lakehead Thunderwolves any favours on Friday night. The OUA men’s hockey team surrendered a pair of second-period power-play goals and were unable to connect on four separate man advantages of their own, leading to a 4-1, opening-night defeat at the hands of the visiting Toronto Varsity Blues at Fort William Gardens. “Special teams was the difference tonight,” said acting coach Jeremy Adduono, filling in for the suspended Andrew Wilkins.
“Their power play gets two, ours gets none and we give up a shorthanded goal. Three special-teams goals for them, none for us is obviously the difference.” It was a game that saw the Thunderwolves outshoot the Varsity Blues 37 to 27, and also one that saw them strike first, Spencer Blackwell ringing a puck off the post and behind Toronto goaltender Sebastian Resar five minutes into the second period.
“The result is disappointing. I thought we did some good things five-on-five. I thought we did generate some chances and opportunities.
But a couple of costly mistakes at inopportune times was kind of the difference,” Adduono said. The two teams played a scoreless first, the Wolves besting Toronto 10-6 in shots in the opening frame. Lakehead’s lead, to the disappointment of the 2,647 who piled into Fort William Gardens for opening night of the 2024-25 campaign, the team’s 23 rd home opener since rejoining Ontario University Athletics in 2001.
Toronto had the first great chance to break the deadlock, when a loose puck nearly filtered its way through the legs of Lakehead goaltender Christian Cicigoi. But the puck stayed out and moments later Blackwell struck. The lead lasted less than seven minutes.
Toronto’s Julian Racine, with about 27 seconds left in an Alex Izyk minor, found himself with the puck in the slot and ripped a high wrist shot past Cicigoi, evening the contest at a goal apiece. Varsity Blues forward Owen Robinson slammed one off the post and Cooper Way took a couple of whacks at the rebound, but couldn’t beat Cicigoi and the game remained tied with seven minutes to play in the second. The bottom fell out for LU in the final two minutes of the opening frame.
Billy Moskal scored on a power play with 90 seconds to play in the period and then, adding insult to injury, Dylan Wightman took a pass from Racine in the slot and fired it home with 11 seconds left in the period. Jacob King added a shorthanded tally for the Varsity Blues with five minutes to go in the third to put the game out of reach. “That’s a good team over there,” Adduono said.
“You kind of lose your focus, take your foot off the gas for a minute and the game changes. We were up 1-0 and get into some penalty trouble and now we’re playing catch-up.” The two teams meet again on Saturday night at the Gardens.
Game time is 7:30 p.m. Wolf tracks : The game was delayed twice for repairs to the ice in the north-end net .
.. Wilkins’ suspension was the result of an incident during last year’s playoffs.
FIRST PERIOD Scoring : None. Penalties : Reeves TOR (holding) 2:59, Wightman TOR (roughing) 15:46. SECOND PERIOD Scoring : 1.
Lakehead, Blackwell (Fasciano) 5:06. 2. Toronto, Recine (Robinson, Wong) 11:57 pp.
3. Toronto, Moskal (Wong) 18:30 pp. 4.
Toronto, Wightman (Recine, Moskal) 19:49. Penalties : R. Whittaker LAK (cross checking) 2:41, Izyk LAK (hooking) 10:14, Moskal TOR (boarding), Izyk LAK (unsportsmanlike conduct) 15:46, L.
Whittaker LAK (high sticking) 16:58. THIRD PERIOD Scoring : 5. Toronto, King (unassisted) 14:27 sh.
Penalties: Way TOR (tripping) 10:25, Davis TOR (roughing) 13:38, Blackwell LAK (high sticking) 18:15. GAME DATA – SOG – Toronto 6-11-10-27, Lakehead 10-14-13-37; Power plays (goals-chances) – Toronto (2-3), Lakehead (0-4); Goaltenders – Toronto: Sebastian Resar, Lakehead: Christian Cicigoi; A : 2,647..
