THUNDER BAY – The Windsor Lancers held the lead for all of 31 seconds on Friday night.
It’s all the No. 7 team in the nation needed.
Forward Anthony Stefano fired a puck off the glove of Lakehead Thunderwolves goaltender Brock Aiken, 41 seconds into overtime, the puck bouncing off the leather and into the net, earning the Lancers a 2-1 win and a non-conference, Christmas Challenge split in a regular-season tune-up for both hockey clubs.
It’s a tough way to lose, said LU forward Joe Mack, whose goal at 17:09 of the opening period evened the score, just 31 seconds after Nolan Gardiner opened the scoring, ringing the puck off the post and past Aiken at 16:38 of the first.
However, taking three of a hypothetical four points against one of the top teams in the country is a big boost for team morale.
“If it was the regular season, we would have gotten three out of four points against the best team in the conference, so we were happy with the weekend for sure. It went into overtime in the second game and it could have gone either way,” said Mack, a native of New Hudson, Mich., who has four goals and four assists in 16 OUA games this season.
“We were really happy with our game, especially coming back with a month off.”
When Mack said it could have gone either way, he meant it.
Down the stretch, both sides had great chances to put it away in regulation.
The T-Wolves, who outshot the Lancers 38-28, killed off back-to-back penalties early in the third, the first coming after Spencer Blackwell slipped on partial breakaway. He was later stopped point-blank by Windsor goaltender Nathan Torchia, the son of former NHLer Mike Torchia, who had a sip of coffee with the Dallas Stars in 1994-95.
Lakehead defenceman Liam Whittaker fired the puck off the post with six minutes to go, and then it was Aiken’s turn to come up strong, stonewalling Windsor’s Mason Kohn on a shorthanded breakaway.
“I think we played really well,” said rookie defenceman Zach Fortin. “It just shows how anyone can beat anyone on back-to-back nights in this league. I think we played well against them and we took advantage of it and then in the game today, it was a close game both ways and they came out with the win in the end.”
Lakehead coach Andrew Wilkins, whose fourth-place team will stay at Fort William Gardens next weekend for a pair against the Toronto Varsity Blues, a team one point behind them in the OUA West standings, said the two teams traded chances most of the night, something he’d like to tighten up before the games start counting again.
“It was just kind of one of those games, unfortunately,” Wilkins said. “Brock played really well. I thought he deserved better than that because he made some big saves tonight.”
Puck drop on Friday and Saturday nights is scheduled for 7 p.m. Lakehead enters the second half with a 9-5-2 record, while Toronto comes in at 9-6-1.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring.: 1. Windsor, Gardiner (McMullen) 16:38. 2. Lakehead, Mack (Fortin) 17:09. Penalties: McNamara WSR, Gervais LAK (cross checking) 11:54, McNamara WSR (slashing) 18:05.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: None. Penalties: Whitaker LAK (holding) 2:20, Dobrich WSR (head contact, misconduct, served by Chudley) 6:22.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: None. Penalties: Mack LAK (slashing, roughing after the whistle, served by Ho), McNamara WSR (roughing after the whistle) 5:28, Turpin LAK (tripping) 7:31, Kohn WSR (hooking) 8:31, McMullen WSR (misconduct), Fetter WSR (cross checking) 15:04.
OVERTIME
Scoring: 3. Windsor, Stefano (Wale) 0:41. Penalties: None.
GAME DATA – SOG – Windsor 11-7-8-2-28, Lakehead 15-11-12-0-38; Power plays (goals-chances) – Windsor (0-2), Lakehead (0-3); Goaltenders – Windsor: Nathan Torchia, Lakehead: Brock Aiken; A: 2,000.
