WOLVES STEAL GAME 1

Copenhagen, Denmark- Not given much of a chance against the explosive Copenhagen Crusaders, the Thunder Bay Timberwolves came out clicking and cooled the top ranked team by winning Game 1 by a 3-2 score.
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"They're a hurtin' unit over there and we knew if we wanted to get off to a good start in this series we had to set the tempo here in game one and we needed to get it rolling right off the face-off," said Timberwolves forward, Patrick Sharp before the game.
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The Crusaders were without a big chunk of their defense, so the Timberwolves needed to take advantage of that.
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At 7:13 in, Colby Armstrong put Thunder Bay on top with his first of the post-season.
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TJ Oshie made it 2-0 at 13:30 for his third of the season from Rick Nash.
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Blair Betts made the most of his fourth line minutes and scored his first in the playoffs at 14:30 to close out the first twenty minutes of hockey and put the underdog Timberwolves in clear control of this opening series contest.
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In the second period the Crusaders came alive. Putting twenty one shots on Henrik Lundqvist [pictured] and sneaking in two behind the Thunder Bay goaltender to bring the game within reach.
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In the third period, the Timberwolves did all they could to hold onto their one-goal lead and met Copenhagen at the red line and forced their game to the boards. Limiting them to only nine shots in the most critical period of the game.
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"We know we weren't getting the best out of them [Copenhagen]," remarked Timberwolves head coach Craig Hartsburg after the win. "But they still put a very high quality squad out there and that should not be ignored. We did what we wanted to do right from the start. The guys completely controlled that first period and we actually played really well in the second, despite giving up those two goals. Henrik [Lundqvist] did all he could and those just weren't shots anyone would've made. In the second intermission, we talked about shutting these guys down and not giving them any room. We did that, tried to shut down their game from the red line in and really forced them to take soft shots from the wall or long distance ones. We'll enjoy this, take the good and bad from it and prepare for Game 2. We know we'll get nothing but the best from Copenhagen, and we'll have to counter it with our very best."
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3-STARS
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>>>*Colby Armstrong [THU] - Goal
>>**Mike Green [COP] - Power play goal
>***Blair Betts [THU] - Goal