PRE-SEASON IN FULL SWING!

Milan Lucic

Thunder Bay, Ont.- The CCHL pre-season is upon us, and the Thunder Bay Timberwolves are off to a hot start with a re-vamped lineup and more abrassive style for the 2011-12 season.
>>>On Monday, the Timberwolves traveled across the country to take on the Victoria Ronin. A Marian Gaborik hat trick and three players with at least four points later, and the boys of the Superior lakehead skated away with a 7-1 victory.
>>>Tuesday saw the hockey club return home... well, for record-keeping purposes the Timberwolves were the home team when they took on the Dayton Musicmen at Mariucci Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota.
>>>Curtis Glencross put the Musicmen up early for his second of the pre-season at 2:25 in the first period.
>>>A two-minute minor for slashing by Dayton's Corey Perry on Milan Lucic caught the ire of the Timberwolves, but nothing would come while on the power play.
>>>At 15:59, Lucic transformed his disdain for Perry's slash into a tying goal with assists coming from Niklas Kronwall and Rick Nash.
>>>With forgiveness not in his mind, Lucic and Perry met again, had words and then gloves shed. Unfortunately for Perry, Lucic hits as hard as he shoots the puck and while the Thunder Bay combatant sat in the box for five minutes, the Dayton punching bag needed some parts of his face sewn up.
>>>Cal Clutterbuck would notch himself two assists in the second period with the helpers on goals by Mike Knuble and Marc Staal.
>>>The third would remain scoreless, and the Timberwolves took the 3-1 win.
>>>"This was a good, hard-fought win for us tonight," said Timberwolves head coach Craig Hartsburg after the game. "There's work to be done, and we're still sloppy in alot of areas. But I liked the tempo of this one, and guys standing up for themselves and for each other while not being stupid about it."
>>>As for the next game, it is likely that rookie goaltender James Reimer will see his first action. The young keeper from Manitoba has been stellar through training camp and looks to have solidified himself as Henrik Lundqvist's backup for this season. With Reimer, the Timberwolves will have a vastly different lineup than this one against Dayton. Especially on the blueline, where Douglas Murray and Carl Gunnarsson have been penciled in for this third game. With Nick Schultz and Staal getting a night off.
>>>Pre-season continues until Saturday. The Timberwolves home opener at Canadian National Gardens is Sunday when they take on the Calgary Chinook before a national audience as the CBC's Hockey Night in Canada game of the week [as the only all-Canadian season opener].
>>>"It's exciting," said Timberwolves GM Blake Wendt. "Seems like this has been a very long summer, and we're just itching to get going. We need to get some things ironed out here in the pre-season, and hopefully get off to a good start on Sunday against Calgary."