HONVED STOPPED BY WOLF PACK

Budapest, Hungary- Looking to feed off a solid thumping of their provincial rival (Niagara Falls; 6-2 win) on Tuesday, the Thunder Bay Timberwolves hopped across the Atlantic to take on the red-hot Budapest Honved on Thursday.

>>>Despite two ill-advised minors in the 1st period by the road club, Budapest could not counter and Thunder Bay turned things around at 18:24 with a nifty shot from Mike Fisher. The Peterborough-native's 16th goal.

>>>The score would remain 1-0 through the opening period and until 6:37 in the second when the Timberwolves, Ales Hemsky (pictured) doubled up the lead with his 4th of the season from Simon Gagne and Erik Johnson.

>>>"It was great to get that goal," summed up Hemsky. "Being up two is huge in this league. It's not comfortable, but with our guy in goal (Lundqvist) it's alot tougher for the opposition to come back. Not to mention Simon and I have been snake bitten lately, and we have really good chemistry. So it's great to get some results."

>>>Henrik Sedin would draw Honved within one goal at 17:05 to close out the first 40 minutes of scoring.

>>>"We didn't sweat that goal (Sedin's) much going into the intermission," said Fisher between periods. "It bounced around and hit alot of sticks and skates before getting in the net. Lundy (Lundqvist) didn't have a chance on it. But we have to respond and not let them get to high on themselves."

>>>The third period saw both clubs jostle for position and in particular the Timberwolves suffocate the defensive zone and not push the puck much into the offensive zone either.

>>>That was until 19:07 when rookie blueliner, Carl Gunnarsson took a chrisp backhand feed from Marc Savard and hammered a shot from the point past a screened Evgeni Nabokov to seal the game for the Timberwolves, 3-1.

>>>One player that although note penciling his name on the scoresheet, made a very visible impact on the game. Marian Gaborik did not score or assist on any of the goals for the Timberwolves. But the Slovak led to the club in shots (6), hits (4) and even laid out the body on a shot block.

>>>"It's great to get that kind of effort out of a guy that's main job is to score goals here," said Timberwolves coach, Ryan McGill. "I'll be the first to say that I'd prefer he stick with the scoring and not engage in the shot blocking though unless absolutely necessary. You cringe when you see a guy like that giving up his body to block shots. But I'm proud more than anything. We all played a very team-first game today."

>>>The Timberwolves will have an extra day off between traveling back to Thunder Bay for Sunday's tilt against the Linz Black Wings. But Sunday's game is the first of three in a row in three days that will be brutal. Immediately after (and alot before) the Linz game, the team will rush to the airport to fly to Prague, Czech Republic for a Monday game, repeat the same hurriedly pace and fly back to Canada for a Tuesday game in Winnipeg.

>>>"The travel will be a nightmare," said Patrick Sharp. "Every team does it, so we're not any different. But it's tough. No matter the accommodations on the plane, some guys just don't sleep very well on it. Those guys will be hurting big time."

>>>

>>>3-STARS

>>>

>>>*Ales Hemsky (THU) - game-winning goal

>>**Henrik Sedin (BUD) - goal

>***Carl Gunnarsson (THU) - goal