THUNDER BAY -- The Lakehead Thunderwolves are OUA West Division champions.
The T-Wolves took the title on Saturday when the Western Mustangs used home-ice advantage to down the No. 8 Windsor Lancers 5-3 in a matinee contest that marked the end of the OUA regular season for both teams.
Lakehead and Windsor finished tied atop the West Division, both teams winding up at 18-6-3. The first tiebreaker is regulation and overtime wins, and the two teams each had 18. Head-to-head record is the second tiebreaker and Lakehead edged out the Lancers, winning two of three meetings this season.
Both Lakehead and Windsor will sit out the first round of the playoffs, the top two teams in the East and West divisions earning a bye into the second round.
Lakehead will maintain home-ice advantage throughout the divisional playoffs.
Western (11-11-5) is on the outside looking as the playoffs get set to start this coming week.The Mustangs finished tied for sixth with Laurier, but the Golden Hawks earn the final playoff spot by virtue of having more regulation and overtime wins (13) than Western (10).
Brock will host Laurier or York and Toronto Metropolitan will host Toronto in Round 1.York can still eliminate Laurier with a regulation or overtime win over Guelph on Saturday night. The two teams would have identifcal points and ROW counts, and the Lions won all three regular season matches.
In the East, UQTR and Concordia earned first-round byes. McGill, Ontario Tech, Carleton and Ottawa are the other playoff teams.
