THUNDER BAY — To this point in the season, Christian Cicigoi has been a difference-maker for the goal-starved Lakehead Thunderwolves.
The second-year goaltender has been between the pipes for all four LU wins this season, and stands with the stats leaders in key categories like goals against average, where he’s seventh at 2.59 goals per game, and his .911 save percentage is 10th best in the OUA.
Earlier this week he was named the Thunderwolves player of the month for October and has entrenched himself as the clear No. 1 netminder on the team.
Cicigoi, a Thunder Bay Kings graduate who had a brief stint in the Ontario Hockey League during his junior days, stormed onto the university hockey scene a year ago, going 10-4-1 with a 2.74 goals against average and a .915 save percentage, leading the T-Wolves to an OUA division title and a spot in the bronze-medal game in the postseason.
That was on a team that was scoring almost four goals a game.
This year’s edition has been slow out of the gate offensively, with just 25 goals in nine outings, and the second-least effective power play in the league, the Thunderwolves scoring just 7.5 per cent of the time with the man advantage.
The 22-year-old said the team is hoping to build on what they’ve accomplished, and he thinks the goal bubble is about to burst.
“We’re working hard every single day,” he said. “The goals will come. I know they will, from previous years. We’ve just got to focus on the right things. I know a lot of times, with all the outside noise, we want to do so well. We have high expectations for ourselves, and to just be able to manage that and focus on the little things … and winning little battles, it’ll end up being a successful story for us.”
Coach Andrew Wilkins said in the meantime Cicigoi is providing the consistency the team needs in the defensive end of the rink, keeping the Thunderwolves competitive.
“It seems like every game he’s giving us a chance to win, and if it’s not that, he’s our best player in a winning performance. He comes to the rink every day with a great attitude. He works hard, has a great attitude. He’s the type of player we want and he just has that infectious attitude that really feeds the group,” Wilkins said.
Cicigoi and the sixth-place Thunderwolves (4-4-1) will spend the next two weekends on the road, heading to North Bay on Thursday and Friday for a pair against the Nipissing Lakers, and then to Toronto and Montreal the following week to take on the York Lions and Concordia Stingers, who beat the T-Wolves in last season’s bronze-medal contest.
They’re four key games, the goaltender said, but added it’s a one-game-at-a-time mentality at this stage of the campaign.
“Going into this weekend, we can’t just focus on multiple games. We’ve just got to focus on our next game and do what it takes to get a positive result, learn from that and move forward.”
Then rinse and repeat on Friday, and start all over again next week.
Lakehead’s next home games are Nov. 24 and Nov. 25, when the UQTR Patriotes and McGill Redmen invade Fort William Gardens.
