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The Waterloo Warriors won their opening game of the season in thrilling fashion over the Lakehead Thunderwolves 5-4 in overtime. Fourth year defenceman Kyle Sonnenburg (Waterloo, Ont.) fired a shot from the point past Lakehead netminder Alex Dupuis to seal the victory. Sonnenburg also picked up an assist in the game picking up where he left off last season as OUA first team all-star. All-Canadian Keaton Hartigan (Kitchener/) made 28 saves in the game. The win was the 100th CIS victory for head coach Brian Bourque.
The first period saw both teams battle for every inch of ice, with Lakehead captain Jordan Smith (Sault St. Marie, ON) and Mitch Maunu (Thunder Bay, ON) setting the tone with some big hits.
After both sides traded chances early on, Mike Quesnele (Sault St. Marie, ON) converted on a beautiful feed from Matt Caria (Sault St. Marie, ON) to put the Wolves up 1-0.
Kris Hogg (Sicamous, BC) wasted no time scoring his third goal of the year, increasing the Wolves lead to 2-0, just 1:10 into the second period. Andrew Wilkins (Pickering, ON) and Andy Hyvarinen (Thunder Bay, ON) had the assists.
With Caria in the box for slashing, Waterloo defenceman Steve Whitely (Petrolia, Ont.) cut the lead in half with a blistering shot from the point that eluded Lakehead goaltender Alex Dupuis (Thunder Bay, ON) at 6:38 of the second. The pace picked up considerably after that point, and after some nice stops by Dupuis to keep the Wolves in front, Andy Zulyniak (Winnipeg, MB) buried a hard wrister to put the Wolves ahead 3-1.
Waterloo again crept within one, as Kyle Schwende (Kitchener, Ont.) scored to make it 3-2. The Warriors evened things up at 13:45 of the second as Kurt Thorner (St. Thomas, Ont.) put one home to make it 3-3.
Waterloo's momentum continued just 1:38 into the third period as forward Kirt Hill (Winnipeg, Man.) scored to put the Warriors up 4-3. The lead was short-lived as Zulyniak scored his second goal of the game at 4:27 of the third on a shot from the point that found its way through traffic. McPherson was credited with the lone assist.
In overtime, Lakehead's Matt Caria took a double minor with just under 3 minutes remaining setting up the game winner by Sonnenburg and giving the Warriors their first victory of the season in an always tough building to play, Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay.
The Thunderwolves and Warriors do battle again tonight. The game can be seen live on SSN Canada – click here for the live feed starting at 7:30 pm.
