The Windsor Lancers earned themselves a trip to the Queen's Cup Finals and a U SPORTS championship berth with a gritty 4-2 win over the Lakehead Thunderwolves in the Western Conference Finals game three in Thunder Bay Saturday night.
 
The Lancers overcame an early Lakehead goal and used an explosive second period performance to power past the Thunderwolves in front of a loud and hostile Lakehead crowd.
 
STATS
Nathan Torchia was fantastic for the Lancers between the pipes, stopping 26 of 28 shots faced. Lakehead's Max Wright made 19 saves on 22 shots.
 
Anthony Stefano was the best teammate of the night, picking up two assists.
 
The Lancers Penalty Kill unit starred all game, killing all six of the Lancers penalties. The Thunderwolves killed all three of their penalties.
 
GAME FLOW
The Lancers came out of the gates strong, forcing an early penalty and getting a chance to take control of the game early. Windsor couldn't capitalize on the chance though, as the game settled into a goaltender's dream, with very few chances getting on net. Shortly after, Lakehead benefitted from an interference call to produce their best offensive opportunity of the day, only to be denied by Nathan Torchia, killing the penalty for the Lancers. Windsor again found themselves on the penalty kill twice later in the period, killing both. Despite the great penalty kill, the Lancers found themselves down 1-0 after the Thunderwolves scored with just 32 seconds left in the period.
 
The second period couldn't have started more differently, with the Lancers drawing even just seconds into the frame, Anthony Stefano found Mason Kohn to beat Max Wright and make it a 1-1 game. Hardly a minute later, Stefano notched his second assist, threading a pass to Brady Pataki to give Windsor their first lead of the night, 2-1. Seconds later, Sean Olson got in on the fun, beating Max Wright to score the Lancers' third goal in just 2:14 of action, giving the blue and gold a 3-1 lead early in the period. Later in the period, the Lancers killed off a penalty, only for Lakehead to score immediately after, when Griffen Fox beat Torchia to make it a 3-2 game with 7:10 left in the period. Despite a couple late penalties, the Lancers made it out of the period with a 3-2 lead.
 
The blue and gold killed off the remaining 24 seconds of a penalty kill to open the third. The Lancers penalty kill unit kept the Lancers afloat throughout a penalty-filled third period, with Torchia providing a host of eye-popping saves. In the waning minutes, as things got physical and contested, the Lancers capitalized on an empty net goal to put the game away when Barret Dachyshyn took the puck across center ice and ripped one home to give the Lancers the 4-2 win, punching their ticket to the National playoffs, and a Queen's Cup Finals berth next week.
 
 
UP NEXT
The Lancers will host the Queen's Cup on Saturday, March 11th against the winner of the Eastern Conference final being determined on Sunday night. Stay tuned to goLancers.ca for more information as it becomes available.