THUNDER BAY – At this point in the season, every point counts.
Thanks to Ben Badalamenti’s breakaway overtime goal on Friday night, the Lakehead Thunderwolves scraped out a valuable pair of them as the men’s hockey team continues to jostle for playoff position – while trying to put some space between themselves and the teams on the outside looking in.
“I had myself a breakaway and saw under the glove was open and fortunately I put it there,” said Badalementi, who tally was his third of the regular season and earned LU a 2-1 win over the Toronto Varsity Blues.
“It was massive. They’re right behind us in the standings, so we have to keep staying ahead of them. We’ve got another one tomorrow and hopefully we can do the same thing.”
With 10 games left to go before the regular season concludes, it’s still a little early to be glued to the standings, but with just six teams making the postseason out of the OUA West, and seven teams with a viable chance to get there, the more points the better.
The T-Wolves, who improved to 10-5-2 in front of 2,114 fans at Fort William Gardens, leapfrogged Toronto Metropolitan and climbed into a second-place tie with Windsor, who lost 4-3 to eighth-place Waterloo on Friday night.
“It was a huge two points against a really good team that is very tight with us in the division standings. It was crucial, huge,” said LU coach Andrew Wilkins.
The game itself was tight too, the only goals coming two minutes and 12 seconds apart late in the first.
Owen Robinson opened the scoring for Toronto (9-6-2), breaking free of LU defenceman Kyle Auger and firing a wrist shot past Max Wright, the lone blemish of the contest as he went on to stop 20 of 21 shots directed his way.
In the final minute of the opening period, Lakehead caught a bit of a break.
Colin Van Den Hurk let loose a shot from just inside the Toronto blue-line and Kevin Stiles redirected it out of the air and behind Toronto’s Jett Anderson, a one-time emergency back-up for the Colorado Avalanche.
It would stay tied through regulation, the Thunderwolves having the best opportunities to score, but unable to solve Anderson, who faced 36 shots on the night.
Toronto started the third two men down for more than a minute, but killed off the penalties. Later in the third Spencer Blackwell appeared to be in alone on a three-on-one, but Toronto’s Ryan Barbosa came out of nowhere to shut the play down. A period earlier Peyton Reeves broke up an LU two-on-one, the Wolves failing to capitalize on a number of chances in the middle stanza.
Keighan Gerrie was sent in alone on Anderson midway through the second and later, Blackwell and Anderson both chased after the puck, leaving the Lakehead forward with an empty net to shoot at, only to be foiled.
The game appeared destined for overtime, and it didn’t disappoint.
“It was back-and-forth. When it gets like that, you kind of feel like that’s how it’s going to end it. Wright made a huge save for us, we got stuck out there on a long shift …. (Olivier Pouliot) was exhausted, but bared down and made a great play,” Wilkens said.
The two teams will tangle again on Saturday night, the opening face-off scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Gardens.
Wolf tracks: Toronto forward Eddie Yan spent 17 games in the Kontinental Hockey League in Russia, going pointless in 17 games in 2021-22.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Toronto, Robinson 7 (Reeves) 17:17. 2. Lakehead, Stiles 4 (Van Den Hurk, Badalamenti) 19:29. Penalties: Woodhouse TOR (roughing), Reeves TOR (roughing), Van Unen LAK (roughing) 7:49, Moskal TOR (cross checking) 11:09, Ho LAK (interference) 11:31, Auger LAK (slashing) 14:45.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: None. Penalties: Bench minor LAK (too many men, served by Ho) 15:08, Moskal TOR (high sticking) 19:01, Davis TOR (slashing) 19:49.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: None. Penalties: None.
OVERTIME
Scoring: 3. Lakehead, Badalamenti 3(Pouliot) 2:58. Penalties:
GAME DATA – SOG – Toronto 6-7-7-1-21, Lakehead 9-11-12-4-36; Power plays (goals-chances) – Toronto (0-3), Lakehead (0-4); Goaltenders – Toronto: Jett Alexander, Lakehead: Max Wright; A: 2,114.
