WOLVES RUN OUT OF GAS

John Tavares

Thunder Bay, Ont.- The Timberwolves fell back to Earth on Tuesday when they were thumped 7-4 by the new Keflavik Whalers at home.
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Thunder Bay went on top early, when defenseman Marc Staal scored his first for his hometown Timberwolves at just :46 seconds into the game.
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Sophomore centre, John Tavares scored a pair at 1:25 and 2:41 with assists coming from Cal Clutterbuck and Milan Lucic.
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The Whalers would score a pair of their own, and one more from the Timberwolves right-winger, Mike Knuble ended the opening session's scoring at 4-2 for Thunder Bay.
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Keflavik controlled the second period, and add two more from Chris Stewart and Kristian Huselius to knot things up going into the third.
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In the third period it was once again all Whalers. A tally from Nathan Horton at 10:20 finally put the road club on top, only to be added to :19 seconds later with a two-goal lead coming off the stick of Huselius. Keflavik iced the game at 14:35 with a goal from Maxime Talbot to finish off the comeback with a 7-4 victory for the Whalers.
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"We got smoked," said a matter-of-fact Cal Clutterbuck after the contest. "I don't know if we just got too comfortable with that lead we had early. I don't know. But we let up them, when we clearly needed to put our foot on their throat and take them out."
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"We were horrid in the face-off circles," said head coach Craig Hartsburg. "They just about what, doubled up on us in that department [20-39]? If you can't control or at least play close in the circles, you don't have a chance. That's where puck possession starts, and where you dictate your game. We were beat bad there, and the score reflects that."
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The Timberwolves will hop the puddles west when they take on the Ferrets in Winnipeg on Thursday.
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3-STARS
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*Kristian Huselius [KEF] - 2 goals and 2 assists
**John Tavares [THU] - 2 goals
***Nathan Horton [KEF] - 2 goals and an assist