THUNDER BAY – Nathan Torchia is a difference maker.
The son of a former National Hockey League goaltender, Torchia was suspended when the Windsor Lancers paid their last visit to Fort William Gardens.
Not surprisingly, the Lancers dropped both games, giving up 12 goals in the process.
Lakehead wasn’t so fortunate on Wednesday night.
Torchia stood on his head, stopping 56 shots, including a handful of one-on-one chances, and stymied the Thunderwolves time and time again, as the outgunned Lancers opened the OUA West playoffs with a 3-2 overtime win in front of 2,074 weeknight fans at the Gardens.
Jake Durham potted the overtime winner, stepping across the LU blueline and ripping a shot past Thunderwolves goaltender Max Wright, who made 29 saves on the night.
Windsor will have a chance to put away the best-of-three series on Friday night at home. Game 3, if necessary, will be played in Windsor on Saturday.
“Obviously there a really good team over there and they’re going to shoot a lot of pucks,” said Torchia, son of former Dallas Stars goaltender Mike Torchia.
“I thought we did a pretty good job for the most part, keeping them to the outside and making it a little easier for me being able to see a lot of the shots. I know they had a lot of shots, but I still feel like we battled. You know what, we’ve got to find a way, and that’s what we did.”
Across the 73-year-old arena, Lakehead coach Andrew Wilkins had the demeanor of a coach who knows his team might have let one get away.
“He’s a good goalie and we knew that coming in. I thought he made some big saves in the third to keep them with that one-goal lead. Luckily we were able to get the tap-in. But we had some point-blank chances in overtime. We couldn’t ask for better chances, honestly,” Wilkins said.
The Thunderwolves did everything but put the puck into the net, until Greg Smith tied it, punching it home from the side of the Windsor crease with 1:20 go in regulation.
The rest of the night, Torchia was always in the right place at the right time.
Dylan Massie found himself alone in front, but shot the puck into the Windsor goaltender. Tyler Jette ripped a shot from the slot, but Torchia got a piece of it. Griffen Fox was sent in a lone on a cross-ice pass from Colin Van Den Hurk, but couldn’t connect.
Later, the Wolves on their second power play of the period, Fox tipped a shot into Torchia’s pads.
Tyler Ho rang one off the iron in the second, and Ho and Griffen Fox had great back-to-back chances early in the extra frame.
But a penalty to graduating defenceman Colin Van Den Hurk swung the momentum the Lancers direction and, give seconds after the T-Wolves killed it off, the puck was in the mesh.
“As soon as you see a guy like (Jake) in the slot you know it’s going to be a high percentage chance. He’s got a real good shot. I was feeling really good when I saw him coming in and he did the job. That’s what he’s been doing for us all year.”
Lakehead opened the scoring in the first, when Liam Whittaker cut across the front of the net and bounced the puck off Torchia and watched it dribble over the goal line for a 1-0 LU lead.
The one-goal advantage stood for 68 seconds, Johnny Ulicny blasting one off the post and past Wright. Neither team scored in the second and it was Windsor’s Nic Pavia who notched the go-ahead goal beating Wright from a near-impossible angle, a step in front of the red line to the LU netminder’s left, just 32 seconds into the third.
It’s must-win from here on in, the sixth-year bench boss said, his team needing to win its next two games to have any hope of advancing deeper in the OUA playoffs.
“We’re super disappointed losing in overtime at home. It’s tough. It hurts,” Wilkins said, adding his veterans are already stepping up.
“They know we’ve got to win two games here. We’ll pick our heads up. We’re right there. It could have gone either way.”
Claw marks: Windsor assistant Andy Delmore, a former junior teammate of Thunder Bay’s Trevor Letowski, played 283 games in the NHL with Philadelphia, Nashville, Buffalo and Columbus.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Lakehead, Whittaker 1 (Pouliot, DeGrazia) 14:17. 2. Windsor, Ulicny (Mufarreh) 15:23. Penalties: None.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: No scoring. Penalties: Fetter WSR (hooking) 10:11, Jette LAK (holding) 10:24, Van Den Hurk LAK (cross checking) 11:16, Toews WSR (goaltender interference) 14:26.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 3, Windsor, Pavia 1 () 0:32. 4. Lakehead, Smith 1 (Blackwell, Badalamenti) 18:52. Penalties: Gerrie LAK (cross checking), Durham WSR (hooking, cross checking) 6:15, Kohn WSR (high sticking) 10:53, Smith LAK (hooking) 13:25, Fox LAK (cross checking), McNamara WSR (unsportsmanlike conduct) 13:55.
OVERTIME
Scoring: 5. Windsor, Durham 1 (unassisted) 7:56. Penalties: Van Den Hurk LAK (tripping) 5:51.
GAME DATA – SOG – Windsor 9-10-7-6-32, Lakehead 17-17-17-7-58; Power plays (goals-chances) – Windsor (0-), Lakehead (0-4); Goaltenders – Windsor: Nathan Torchia, Lakehead: Max Wright; A: 2,074.
