LEFT COAST WIN GETS WOLVES ON TRACK

Stellar goaltending and Nash's 2 points spark Wolves to win over rebuilding Ronin

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Victoria, BC- An offensive explosion and in particular, an explosion with the man-advantage led the 3rd place Thunder Bay Timberwolves to a 5-1 victory over the Victoria Ronin on Tuesday. The visiting Wolves notching three power play goals off of four attempts while getting the best out of their backup goaltender, Brian Elliott.
>>>Victoria's Blake Wheeler opened up the games scoring for the Minnesota-native's 6th of the season for a struggling Ronin club at 2:35 in.
>>>A power play tally from Thunder Bay's Simon Gagne evened things up at 15:41 and both clubs would go into the dressing room all tied up.
>>>"I thought we played a little flat, and maybe it was the legs after a back-to-back," said Timberwolves goal-scorer, Gagne between periods. "They've got a proud team over there, and we have to respect that and expect nothing but all out effort from them throughout the rest of the game."
>>>Thunder Bay held their own in the second period with the help of an early early goal while again with the man-advantage from Rick Nash [pictured] at :59 from Marc Savard and Carl Gunnarsson. The lone goal of the period and ten saves from Elliott.
>>>"We did what we needed to do," said the rookie Gunnarsson at the intermission. "Elliott's been top notch and we don't need to do anything different in front of him than we'd do in front of [Henrik] Lundqvist."
>>>Elliott's stellar play continued into the final 20 minutes of the game. Stopping all 14 shots faced while getting a cushion from another power play goal [Patrick Sharp], a shorthanded goal [Antti Miettinen] and an even strength goal for good measure [Ales Hemsky], to drop Victoria 5-1.
>>>"It's a good win," remarked head coach, Craig Hartsburg after the lopsided tilt. "We allowed too many shots. Our goalie bailed us out there. But we've got to clean that part of our game up. Proud of the guys that have been struggling some like Ricker [Nash] and even Gunnarsson. So it's good to get those guys going again."
>>>The Timberwolves play again on Thursday when they travel across the continent to take on the Long Island Express [16-32-3].
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>>>3-STARS
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>>>*Brian Elliott [THU] - 36 saves and 1 goal against for the win
>>**Rick Nash [THU] - Power play goal and an assist
>***Blake Wheeler [VIC] - 1 goal