After a 3-1-0 start to the season, the Waterloo Warriors were anxious to get back home and keep their hot start rolling against one of their most heated divisional rivals. But the visiting Lakehead Thunderwolves crashed the party with their first two victories of 2017-18.

The Wolves used a tenacious forecheck and some solid goaltending to claim a 5-1 victory over the Warriors on Friday night, before following it up with a come-from-behind 3-2 shootout win on Saturday afternoon at the Columbia Icefield Arena.

The pair of victories pushes Lakehead to 2-3-1 on the season, while the Warriors salvaged a point in the standings, falling to 3-2-1.

In the first game of the weekend back-to-back set, the Wolves swarmed Waterloo with speed and a physical forecheck to generate their biggest offensive outburst of the young season. After Michael Siddall (St. Mary's/) opened the scoring midway through the first, Lakehead's Brennan Dubchak responded with an equalizer just 57 seconds later to square things at 1-1.

Then, just 1:11 after the Dubchak marker, Daniel Del Paggio gave the Thunderwolves the lead with a strange wrister that hit the post behind goalie Mike Morrison (Hamilton/), ricocheting off the iron and off the back of the keeper, trickling in for a Lakehead 2-1 advantage. Scott Gall added a goal before the end of the frame, and the Warriors trailed 3-1 after 20 minutes.

The Warriors came back stronger in the middle stanza, but goaltender Nic Reynard was stellar in the Thunderwolves net. The NCAA transfer made 23 saves on the night, but many were of the highlight-reel variety. In front of the strong play from their netminder, The Wolves added a pair of power play markers in the second: Tyler Anton fired a point shot off a leg in front to make it 4-1, while E.J. Faust tipped a shot home late in the period to make it 5-1.

The final period featured no goals, but plenty of hostilities as each team tried to establish themselves physically for the following afternoon's rematch. All told, there were 10 minor penalties called in the game's final 20 minutes.

Less than 24 hours later, the Warriors seemed to handle the Lakehead full-ice pressure much better than a night before. Rookie Trevor Martin (Ardrossan/) got the call for Waterloo between the pipes, and was terrific for the hosts all day, making 40 stops in his second career USports start.

And for a time, it looked like Martin would have enough goal support to get his second career win, too – after a scoreless first period, Keigan Goetz (New Hamburg/) and Joey Champigny (East Angus/) both potted goals for the Warriors in the second period.

But Del Paggio cut the Waterloo advantage in half early in the third, and then Devin Fullum scored the equalizer just past the midway point of the period. The Warriors had four consecutive opportunities on the man advantage – including three in the game's final 9 minutes – but couldn't crack goalie Devin Green and the Lakehead defence to avoid overtime.

In the extra session, it was Martin and the Warriors who were behind the eight-ball, as they had to kill off a 4-on-3 power play in overtime. But the rookie keeper was on his toes, and the game was extended to a shootout.

After each team's first shooters were stopped, Lakehead's Dylan Butler beat Martin with a perfect shot off the left post and in. Green followed that up by stonewalling Zac Coulter (Owen Sound/) and Goetz to give Lakehead the extra point and a two-win weekend.

The Warriors will now turn their attention to two of the top teams in the OUA West division, as they host the Ryerson Rams on Friday, November 3, before traveling to face the 6-0-0 York Lions on Saturday, November 4.