Moir shuts out Paladins to lead Lakehead to series opening win on Friday; LU falters in surprising 5-4 shootout loss on Saturday

Lyle Morissette

Sports Editor

Six goals, textbook goaltending, and the continuance of a renewed swagger on defense, all worked in coalescence on Friday night as the Wolves men’s hockey team trounced the RMC Paladins 6-0 at the Constantine Arena in Kingston, Ontario.

While the Wolves offensive talent has yet to really sputter this year, the defensive game certainly has had its lapses here and there. But the defensive effort put forth against the Paladins was certainly a good starting point in addressing the issue.

Building upon last week’s strong closing effort against Toronto was Wolves goaltender Kyle Moir, who tossed aside 22 Paladin shots on the way to his second shutout of the season.

On the offensive end, six different players once again scored in the 6-0 victory for the Wolves.

Scoring in the first period, on the power-play, was Pierre-Marc Guilbault, whose goal also stood up as the game winner when the final horn blew.

Mark Soares, Scott Dobben, Shandor Alphonso, Brock McPherson and Victor Anilane also scored for a Wolves’ team that played with the Paladins all night, outshooting RMC 45-22. McPherson also added two assists for a three point night to tie with teammate Dan Speer, who had three helpers of his own, as LU’s leading scorers.

“It was a long day for us, taking longer than we expected to get to Kingston,” said Thunderwolves head coach Joel Scherban. “We’re happy with how we play and felt we put in a pretty good all-around effort.”

On Saturday, a surprisingly different story unfolded despite a 50-17 shot advantage for the Wolves’ upsetting 5-4 loss in a shootout by the same RMC Paladins that they had breezed past on Friday night. The loss was the Wolves’ first ever to RMC, whom they previously had sported an impressive 9-0-1 record against all-time.

Brock McPherson and Shandor Alphonso each had three-point nights for the Wolves with McPherson potting 2 goals and an assist, and Shandor scoring one in addition to two helpers. Blueliner Ryan Baird added Lakehead’s other goal.

Paul Whalen was the hero for RMC, scoring twice in regulation and adding the shootout winner. Landon Lavictoire and John Hart also tallied for the Paladins.

Goaltending was the biggest story of the contest as RMC’s Andrew Fleming turned aside 46 of 50 shots for the win. LU’s Moir, on the other hand, struggled on the night, sputtering after allowing just one goal in his previous two starts and allowing four goals on 17 shots.

With the weekend split, Lakehead moved to 9-3-2 in OUA play while RMC improved to 4-6-3.

Lakehead will be back on the road again this weekend as they travel to Guelph for Friday and Saturday games against the Gryphons.