ELLIOTT'S FIRST KEEPS WOLVES HOT

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THU [ 5 ]

WIN [ 2 ]

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Winnipeg, MB- The Thunder Bay Timberwolves headed west to Winnipeg on Friday. Hoping to continue their strong play despite being a bit nicked up.

>>>One of those hurt is backup goaltender, Joey MacDonald (expected back this weekend). Giving another opportunity to rookie netminder, Brian Elliott.

>>>Elliott, who earned the backup job out of training camp to then starter Tim Thomas, has struggled in his first CCHL season. Eventually losing his seat on the Timberwolves bench and moved to the Duluth Pups in the minors. Elliott was the starter against the Ferrets.

>>>The gameplan for Winnipeg was to get into the Newmarket, Ontario-natives head early and often. Eventually peppering Elliott with fourteen shots in the opening period. It took David Booth 1:19 to notch his 26th goal of the season past the Timberwolves goalie.

>>>At 10:10, Mark Stuart made it 2-0 Winnipeg. A score that would hold up into the first intermission.

>>>"I thought Elliott's positioning was good," said Timberwolves assistant coach, Ryan McGill. "He looked good this morning at the skate, brought it up a notch in the warm-up and I couldn't blame him for the two that got in there. Maybe over-committed on the last one. But it was good to see him being aggressive."

>>>At 8:07 into the second period, Sheldon Souray broke up a pass at his blueline and took the puck in alone on Semyon Varlamov. The young Russian panicked when the bull moose-Souray loaded up for his patented slapper, then faked it and back-handed his 14th of the season to cut the score in half.

>>>At 13:51, Souray did not fake the bomb and unloaded a blast from the point through a screened Varlamov to tie things up at two.

>>>From there momentum was clearly in Thunder Bay's favour. Elliott seen little work in the middle frame and ended up makes saves on all three of the shots he seen.

>>>"We were where we needed to be," said Timberwolves defenseman, Matt Niskanen. "We didn't concede the blueline and the forwards kept their sticks in the passing lanes and kept them to the boards and forced them to dump and chase."

>>>The third period was all Thunder Bay --again.

>>>Bryan Little broke the tie at 5:11, and the Timberwolves never looked back.

>>>The Ferrets did eventually find more room to take their shots. But Elliott was on his game by then and stopped all nine shots faced in the third.

>>>Marc Savard took a break away in on Varlamov and doubled the Timberwolves lead at 8:39.

>>>Rookie, T.J. Oshie closed out the scoring at 16:41 for his 18th of the season.

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>>>3-STARS

>>>***TJ Oshie (THU) - Goal and an assist

>>>**Brian Elliott (THU) - 1st career CCHL win; 24/26 saves and 2 goals against

>>>*Sheldon Souray (THU) - 2 goals

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>>>Next Game: Sunday @ Reykjavik (21-40-8)