2024-2025 Fall Faceoff Tournament November 1st

Friday, November 1st marked the beginning of the Lakehead Orillia Thunderwolves Extramural Hockey Teams 2024-2025 season at the annual Fall Faceoff Tournament at Rotary Place in Orillia. 

The men got off to a quick start with four goals in the first period giving themselves a 4-1 lead going into the second period. Leading the way was forward Ayden Dooley, who found the back of the net 3 times while adding 2 assists for a 5 point game to start the season off strong. Impressive performances were also had by team captain, Chi Tonin (2 goals), David Corcoran (3 assists), assistant captains Jack Beck (1 goal, 1 assist), and Jacob Dewey (2 assists) leading to an 8-2 victory over Georgian College's Orillia campus to start the tournament. 

The women's team started their season with a hard-fought game against the eventual tournament winners Trent University. The women got off to a great start when forward Minelli Balasuriya, was able to score with 39 seconds left in the first period to give the Thunderwolves a lead heading into the second period. The team was able to hold off the attack until the dying second of the second period, where Trent was able to tie the game up with 43 seconds remaining in the second period. Riding the momentum of the late goal, Trent added two more goals in the third period defeating the Thunderwolves 3-1 in their first game of the season.

Riding the momentum from their first game, the men were able to put on another impressive performance against Seneca College in game two, with a 7-1 victory. After an evenly-matched period, the Thunderwolves were able to get on the board with less than a minute left in the first period with a goal from forward Noah Sands which gave the team the momentum they needed going into the second period. From there the team was off and running and were able to add another four goals in the second period en route to a 7-1 win against Seneca, moving the team on to the finals of the tournament. This strong performance was led by forwards Christian Taylor (4 assists), Noah Sands (2 goals, 1 assist), David Corcoran (1 goal, 2 assists), and Jackson Arcan (1 goal, 2 assists) capping off an impressive display of offence in their two round-robin games. 

After a hard-fought first game, our women's team hit the ice looking to redeem themselves against St. Lawrence College. After falling down 1-0 in the first period, the team was able to battle back in the second period with a goal from Madison Ross, assisted by Jordyn Denomme, to tie things up heading into the third period. Even with the strong defensive team performance, led by goaltender Paige Galbraith, the team dropped their second game 2-1 with St. Lawrence getting on the board early in the third period. 

Heading into their third game and final game, the team met up with 2024 RecCup Champions Humber College, in the championship game. After being eliminated from the RecCup last year by Humber, the team was eager to get another shot at the reigning champions. After falling down 2-0 after a rough first period, the Thunderwolves were able to get a goal back quickly in the second with a goal from forward Noah Collins, assisted by Lucas Ross and Desmond Kropf, to inch a little closer to tying things up and putting the pressure on Humber. Unfortunately, the team got into penalty trouble toward the end of the second period killing their momentum from the goal. Humber made no mistake in capitalizing on their powerplays adding three powerplay goals in the second period to put the game out of reach and going on to win the championship game 5-1. 

For the women's team's third and final game of the day, they took on Fleming College in an extremely close game with a thrilling ending. After two scoreless periods of great defensive play from the Thunderwolves and fantastic goaltending by Paige Galbraith, Fleming was able to break the deadlock with a goal halfway through the third period to put them up 1-0 with 4:22 left to play. In the dying seconds of the third period, the Thunderwolves were able to tie things up with a goal from Grace Semmens, assisted by Minelli Balasuriya, with 28 seconds left in the game to force a shootout to determine the winner of this game. In the shootout, the goalies from both Fleming and Lakehead Orillia stood on their heads, with nobody being able to end the shootout until the 13th round, where Fleming was able to finally score, ending the game in thrilling fashion. Even though the team went 0-3 in their first tournament of the year, their performances left coaches and players optimistic about the rest of the year moving forward as they just narrowly lost each game against three strong opponents. 

Both our men's and women's hockey teams will be back in action on Monday, November 18th at East Bayfield Community Centre in Barrie as Georgian College hosts their Fall Shootout tournament. 

--