Thunder Bay, ON- The Timberwolves welcomed the defending CCHL Cup Champions to the Canadian National Gardens on Monday after coming home from a very successful road trip (2-0-1).>>>The Renegades came out swinging, puting shot after shot on Timberwolves, Brian Elliott. The sophomore goaltender was sharp and looked more determined than he has looked so far this season after taking the starters keys in the pre-season over last season's team MVP, Jonas Hiller.
>>>Despite the visitors efforts, a minor to Nicklas Backstrom proved costly as Thunder Bay would go on top early off the stick of Ales Hemsky with the man-advantage at 1:15 into the first period.
>>>Simon Gagne doubled the score with his second of the season at 1:29 from Hemsky and rookie blueliner, Carl Gunnarsson. The 2-0 would hold going into the first intermission. Elliott stopped all twenty-two shots he faced.
>>>"The Renegades are an explosive team," said Gagne during the break. "Thought we did a good job at opening up all their shots on Ells (Elliott), so he could see most of them. Too many shots, but he did an excellent job and we felt like we could push our game more with having solid goaltending behind us."
>>>At 1:38 into the middle period, River Cities' Jeff Carter took an ill-advised tripping minor and sat for two. With three seconds left on the power play, Marian Gaborik made it 3-0 Timberwolves with his sixth of the season.
>>>Elliott shut the door again, stopping all twelve of the Renegades shots.
>>>The Renegades were getting desperate and taking themselves out of position to makes hits in the third. Shane Doan decided to check Gaborik before the winger took a pass from Marc Savard, and Doan ended up with a interference call at 6:42 into the third.
>>>Like Carter before, Gaborik made Doan pay and again with three seconds left in the man-advantage made it 4-0 Timberwolves at 8:39.
>>>With the game out of reach, River Cities decided to not pull Tim Thomas. But that did not matter much to TJ Oshie who took a break-away in on the former Timberwolves goalie and scored his third of season at 19:59. Something that is not likely to have gone over very well in the Renegades dressing room.
>>>"We preach to these guys to not give up and sit back on anything," said Timberwolves interim head coach, Ryan McGill after the game. "I'm sure they weren't happy with that, but I'm not going to fault our guy for doing what he's being told to do from day one."
>>>The 5-0 shutout is Brian Elliott's first of his career. After facing forty-six shots, the Newmarket, Ontario-native acknowledged it wasn't easy.
>>>"The guys did a great job in front of me and clearing out those shots," said Elliott. "I got lucky a couple times and I didn't see the shot and it just hit me. But otherwise, I clearly seen their shots. That's huge when playing a team like that that unloads alot of shots. This shutout goes to this entire team."
>>>Just across the Boundary Waters in Winnipeg, the Calgary Chinook lost to the Ferrets 3-1. Making the Timberwolves the only unbeaten team in the CCHL at 5-0-1.
>>>The news of this accomplishment was met with not much more than a smile from the Timberwolves players and coaches.
>>>"It's a wonderful start for this hockey club," said Timberwolves GM, Blake Wendt. "It's a very small portion of a long season. But it's a very rewarding small portion. The key is to keep this going for eighty-two games and beyond. We're going to lose eventually. But we have to keep that mentality that we will win every game. Right now we have that mentality."
>>>The Timberwolves next game will be on Wednesday back at CN Gardens against the Portland Owls.
>>>
>>>3-STARS
>>>
>>>*Brian Elliott (THU) - 46 saves in first career shutout
>>**Marian Gaborik (THU) - 2 power play goals
>***Simon Gagne (THU) - 1 goal and an assist
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