THUNDER BAY – Keighan Gerrie needed a breakout game.
Entering Saturday night’s rematch with the Guelph Gryphons, the third-year Thunderwolves forward had just one goal and one assist in six appearances, missing five games because of injury.
The former Superior International Junior Hockey League playoff MVP is just two seasons removed from a 15-goal rookie campaign, and gave a pretty good indication in his seventh start of 2024-25 that he’s ready to be that player once again.
The 23-year-old Gerrie netted a hat trick and added a pair of assists, giving him four goals and seven points in seven games, but more importantly, he led Lakehead to a bounce-back 9-1 win over the Gryphons, a team that edged them 4-3 the night before.
It’s a good feeling, Gerrie said after the performance.
“It’s a big sigh of relief,” he said.
“It’s been a tough start to the year for me and tonight was a big game. Hopefully I can just build off this and keep rolling in the second half.”
It caught the attention of his coach, Andrew Wilkins, who hopes the five-point night is a stepping stone to top-level play the rest of the way.
“It doesn’t surprise us. We know he has that type of ability. He’s coming off an injury, so he’s trying to find his groove. If you ask him, he’ll probably say he didn’t quite play his best game last night, but I thought he was completely dialled in tonight and exceptionally good,” Wilkins said.
Gerrie’s first goal came four minutes into the second, and completed a pretty tic-tac-toe play with linemates Riley Sharun and Joe Mack. The second goal was a rapid-fire answer to Guelph’s Nolan Dann, who been LU goaltender Carson Cherepak short side on the power play at 8:29 of the middle stanza.
Gerrie’s fourth of the season came just 1:45 later, a redirection of cross-crease pass from Mack that flicked high into the Gryphons goal. The hat trick goal wrapped up the scoring in the third, the T-Wolves second power play goal of the night, coming at the 18:54 mark.
He wasn’t the only former SIJHL playoff MVP to have a big night.
Defenceman Jack Cook unleashed a torrent of teddy bears when he rang one off the post and past Guelph starter Cal Schell, who was later yanked in favour of Tanner Wickware midway through the contest after giving up his fourth goal on 18 shots.
It was the annual Teddy Bear Toss game, the goal pausing play for about 10 minutes while players and minor hockey kids collected up the stuffed animals, 27 bags worth to be exact.
“It was awesome. There’ s nothing like playing in front of 2,500 or 3,000 fans here and to see the teddies fly, it was awesome,” said Cook, the goal his first in a Thunderwolves uniform.
“It’s huge. I think it gave me a little confidence boost to just know as a first-year I can play in this league.”
Cook finished the night with a goal and two assists.
The win was important for the team’s standing in the OUA West.
As play moved along, the Wolves (7-4-1) found themselves temporarily in seventh place, one spot out of a potential playoff berth. The two points, however, vaulted them into a tie for first place with Western (7-3-1) and Toronto Metropolitan (7-6-1), each team ending the night with 15 points.
Four teams are tied for fourth, with 14 points.
“It’s crazy how that works, but I think we just have to do our job and get points and get the wins and we’ll be just fine.”
The feisty game also featured a penalty-shot goal by Lakehead’s Olivier Pouliot, and a couple of melees that led to Guelph’s Ethan Doyle being tossed for collecting his second misconduct of the night.
Cherepak made 29 saves to earn the win in goal, while Schell took the loss. Wickware gave up five goals on 23 shots faced.
LU travels to Windsor for a pair next weekend and wraps up first-half play on Nov. 29 on the road against Ontario Tech.
Their next home game is scheduled for Jan. 4 against York.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Lakehead, Cook 1 (Blackwell, Fasciano) 13:30. 2. Lakehead, DeGrazia 5 (Van Unen) 16:50. Penalties: Fasciano LAK (tripping) 4:21, Turpin LAK (interference) 6:27, Sharun LAK (slashing) 11:37, Wilson GUE (slashing) 12:24, Izyk LAK (unsportsmanlike conduct), Vander Voet GUE (roughing) 17:07.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3. Lakehead, Gerrie 2 (Mack, Sharun) 3:46. 4. Guelph, Dann 5 (Issaris, Allensen) 8:29 pp. 5. Lakehead, Gerrie 3 (Mack) 10:14. 6. Lakehead, Pouliot 3 (unassisted) 14:19 penalty shot. Penalties: Fasciano LAK (holding) 6:38, Doyle GUE (misconduct) 14:19, Winterton GUE (interference) 16:46,
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 7. Lakehead, Sharun 1 (Gerrie, Mack) 6:24. 8. Lakehead, D. Massie (Turpin) 11:46. 9. Lakehead, Paul (Gerrie, Cook) 15:29 pp. 10. Lakehead, Gerrie 4 (Cook, Izyk) 18:54 pp. Penalties: Doyle GUE (misconduct, game misconduct), R. Whittaker LAK (misconduct) 10:13, De Simone GUE (slashing) 15:10, Gerrie LAK (tripping) 16:02, Vander Voet GUE (roughing), XXXX LAK () 18:41.
GAME DATA – SOG – Guelph 11-14-5-30, Lakehead 12-15-14-41; Power plays (goals-chances) – Guelph (1-6), Lakehead (2-4); Goaltenders – Guelph: Cal Schell (18 shots, 14 saves), Tanner Wickware (10:14, second), Lakehead: Carson Cherepak; A: 3,043.
