Box Score For the Waterloo Warriors to shake their recent struggles in close games, you had to figure it would be a gritty goal from a sandpaper player battling in front of the net.

Call it the Brett Mackie (Whitby/) special.

Mackie deposited a rebound for the eventual game-winner with 1:51 remaining in the third, and Justin Larson (Buckhorn/) cemented at least a tie for the CIS scoring championship with three points as the Warriors topped the visiting Lakehead Thunderwolves 5-3 on Saturday night at the Columbia Icefield Arena in Waterloo.

The won, coupled with results elsewhere, moved Waterloo (12-10-5) into sixth in the OUA West division with only one game remaining. Meanwhile, Lakehead (17-9-2) missed an opportunity to clinch second in the OUA West, and will now await the result of the Waterloo-Windsor game to learn their final position and first-round opponent.

Jarred Parent (West Montrose/) also added a goal and an assist in the Waterloo victory, and Keaton Hartigan (Kitchener/) made 32 saves in earning the win between the pipes. The Thunderwolves had three different goal scorers, as they came back from two separate 2-goal deficits to tie it at 3-3 before Mackie's winner. Lakehead goalie Alex Dupuis took the loss in the Wolves net, making 24 stops in the defeat.

The visitors came out of the chute with the bulk of the energy, and coming off a 9-3 victory over the Warriors last weekend, Lakehead tossed every puck they could towards Hartigan in the game's first moments. But Waterloo weathered the storm and responded midway through the period, when Larson took the gorgeous no-look feed from Colin Behenna (Waterloo/) and beat Dupuis blocker-side for the opening frame's only goal.

The Warriors extended their lead just 51 seconds into the second period, when Parent went coast-to-coast and willed the puck to the front of the net, where Josh Woolley (Cambridge/) finished the play to make it 2-0 Waterloo. Lakehead wasted no time responding, as Luke Judson flipped a rebound over the outstretched pad of Hartigan just 1:20 later, cutting the lead back down to one goal at 2-1.

The Warriors restored the two-goal advantage a mere 35 seconds later when Jeff Einhorn (Red Deer/) drifted a seeing-eye wrister from the point that looked to beat Dupuis cleanly on the glove side for a 3-1 Warriors lead. The two-goal lead was once again short-lived though, as the Wolves' Chris De La Lande beat Hartigan on his blocker side to make it 3-2. Despite all the early action, both teams settled back into defensive mode, and the middle stanza ended with Waterloo still up a goal.

Both teams exchanged chances and penalties early in the third period, and the Wolves got the equalizer when a shorthanded clearing attempt took a fortuitous bounce to elude Hartigan, who'd come out to play the puck. The loose puck bounced right to Matt Caria, who put it in the empty net and evened things at 3-3.

It looked like that would be the last goal of regulation before Mackie's late-game heroics, which all started with a low point shot from Greg Steffes (Amherstburg/). The shot was deflected on the way through by Kirt Hill (Winnipeg/), and Dupuis kicked the original chance out right to Mackie, who shoveled it home for a 4-3 Waterloo lead. Parent rounded out the scoring with an empty-netter less than a minute later.

The Warriors will now look to move into fifth place in the OUA West when they close out the league's regular season schedule tomorrow night against the Windsor Lancers. Puck drop for the game, which was postponed due to weather on Friday night, is slated for 5:30 at the Columbia Icefield Arena.

Notes: Waterloo went 0-for-4 on the power play, while Lakehead went 0-for-3…Wolves defenceman Mike Quesnele left the game in the second period with what appeared to be a leg injury…Lakehead's Mike MacDonald was awarded a short-handed penalty shot in the second period when the score was 3-2. He shot high and wide to Hartigan's blocker side on the attempt.