AROUND OUA: Mustangs get revenge on Lancers with 5-1 victory
LONDON, Ont. – The line of Cody Brown, Spenser Cobbold, and Shaun Furlong teamed up for a big performance on Saturday afternoon, contributing four goals to a 5-1 victory over the Windsor Lancers at Thompson Arena.
UQTR 8 @ Nipissing 1
Carleton 4 @ Laurentian 0
Mustangs get revenge on Lancers with 5-1 victory
LONDON, Ont. – The line of Cody Brown, Spenser Cobbold, and Shaun Furlong teamed up for a big performance on Saturday afternoon, contributing four goals to a 5-1 victory over the Windsor Lancers at Thompson Arena.
Western's victory helped them avenge the four-spot that Windsor put up on them in December, when the Mustangs were mired in their worst slump of the season. Saturday's rematch was a rough one, with 38 penalty minutes handed out to Windsor and 14 to Western.
"We always have a nice rivalry with Windsor," said Brown. "With playoffs around the corner we know they're going to be coming and we did the same thing tonight so obviously it was going to be a chippy game."
Brown opened the scoring just under four minutes in on a dump-in and two minutes into the second Sean Callaghan would add a similar-looking goal. Western rounded out the middle frame with goals from Brown and Cobbold to take a 4-0 lead into the third.
The early tough luck ended up being a tough pill to swallow for the Lancers, who aren't used to being out of a game with the Mustangs.
"Windsor is a formidable opponent—we've actually had a lot of trouble with them the last couple years if you look back at the history of our games," said Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer. "We got one pretty early, which I think helped with the energy, and then we had some good bounces, some seeing-eye goals that absolutely helped us a lot."
Greg Dodds was excellent in the victory, stopping 33 shots through the first two periods alone before adding another seven saves in the third to pick up his fifth straight win. The junior backstop was playing on less than 24-hours rest and suffered an injury early in the first period but still looked on top of his game, finishing with 40 saves on 41 shots.
"It's always good when the boys put some numbers up on the scoreboard for us," said Dodds. "It was just one of those things where I think we have all the offensive power in the world but pucks just weren't bouncing our way and tonight we had puck luck."
Dodds' counterpart, Blake Richard, deserved a better fate than he got. There wasn't much the backstop could do about Western's first two goals, and by the time he got his wits back it was 4-0 Western. He made a 16 saves in the second and 10 in the third to finish with 33.
The award for prettiest goal of the night goes to Brown, whose second marker came off nice plays from Cobbold and Mike DiPaolo. DiPaolo played give-and-go with Cobbold as they entered the zone, spinning and firing a perfect pass to Brown when he got the puck back. Brown made no mistake, reaching to tip the puck through Richard's wide-open legs.
Neither team was able to cash in on the power play, largely due to the play of both goaltenders. The score sheet shows that Western had one more power play than Windsor, although three of their infractions came with the game out of reach near the end of a wild third period.
In the end, the game looked more like a playoff matchup than anything else, even despite the large margin between the teams. With just two games left in the schedule and the division lead on the line, Western isn't about to take any game for granted.
"These teams are fighting for playoff spots and where they want to be in the standings," said Brown. "At the end of the day we want to have home ice and finish first place.
"We've got a tough war with York and we're battling with them right now so hopefully we can finish up strong these last two games."
NOTES: DiPaolo's assist was his second point since joining the Mustangs in January… Matt Marantz was held off of the score sheet after rejoining the team from injury last night. He had two assists on Friday against Toronto… Cobbol, Brown, and Furlong all finished with multi-point games, combining for seven points on the afternoon. Furlong had a late empty-netter…
Source: Western Mustangs
Cormier makes 58 saves in shootout loss to Lions
TORONTO, ON - The Brock University men's hockey team (6-14-7 OUA) lost a heartbreaker 1-0 in shootout to the first place York Lions (16-6-4 OUA) Saturday night at the Canlan Ice Centre.
Brock was outshot 58-26 in the contest, but it was starting goaltender Real Cormier (Trenton, ON) coming up big registering a career high 58 saves in the loss. York's Chris Perugini turned aside all 26 shots he faced for his 14th victory of the season.
In the shootout both teams sent six shooters and in the end it was York's Justin Larson adding the game winner.
The Badgers close out the 2015-16 season Friday, January 12th at 7:15pm when they host the Waterloo Warriors at the Seymour-Hannah Centre. Graduating players for the Badgers include Cormier, Dan Tanel (Mississauga, ON) and Jamie Kendra (Markham, ON).
Source: Brock Badgers
OUA's top team too much for Lakers
One night after likely their best effort of the OUA season, the Nipissing Lakers men's hockey team didn't have much left in the tank to keep pace with the league's top team.
Coming off an emotional and physically tough victory, the Lakers were the victim of one of the most potent offences in the CIS, as the UQTR Patriotes picked up an 8-1 win over the Lakers Saturday night at Memorial Gardens.
UQTR scored early and often, opening things up less than four minutes into the game.
Already up 1-0, the Patriotes would score three goals in the span of six minutes, extending their lead to 4-0 before the end of the first period.
It was the same story in the second period.
Two goals a minute apart made it 6-0 Patriotes and four minutes after that, it was another tally for the OUA leading Patriotes.
Down 7-0, the Lakers did find the back of the net on the power play as Jimmy McDowell walked in off the point, made a nice cut to the middle of the ice and roofed the puck to the top left corner of the net.
The goal broke the Patriotes shutout and came with just 12 seconds left in the middle frame.
Mackenzie Keirstead picked up the lone assist on McDowell's fifth tally of the campaign.
There was just one goal scored in the third, but it was the Patriotes who scored to regain the seven goal cushion.
The goal came within the first five minutes of the period and assured any type of comeback wasn't going to happen for the Lakers.
Veteran goalie Kirk Rafuse got the nod in net, but was lifted after allowing four goals in the first period.
Domenic Graham came in as relief, but left early due to an apparent shoulder injury, so Rafuse found himself back in the net to close things out.
Four Patriotes had multi-point efforts, including the team's top scorer, Guillaume Asselin, who put up five points.
UQTR ended up leading on the shotclock, as well as the scoreclock, outshooting the Lakers 33-28.
The loss ends Nipissing's three game winning streak and puts them one game below .500, at 11-12-3.
Nipissing will now hit the road to finish up the regular season, facing Queens and UOIT next weekend.
Nipissing can't move up in the standings, currently sitting sixth, but they can fall, so points are still valuable.
While the schedule isn't set as of today, the playoffs are likely to start on Feb. 17.
Source: Nipissing Lakers
Gaels use late rally to beat Warriors in OT
The Waterloo Warriors wrapped up their regular season home schedule with a loss, but it wasn't for lack of opportunity.
Ryan Bloom scored with 20 seconds remaining in regulation, and the Queen's Gaels survived two Waterloo power plays in overtime to escape with a 5-4 overtime victory over the Warriors on Friday night in Waterloo.
Eric Ming scored on a Slater Doggett rebound with just 1:42 left in the second overtime session to give Queen's the victory. Bloom added a second period marker in addition to his game-tying effort, and the Gaels also got goals from Doggett and Patrick McGillis in the win.
The Warriors got a goal and an assist each from Stephen Silas (Georgetown) and Brett Mackie (Whitby), while Chris Chappell (Pickering) and Cam Nicoll (Loretto) also added markers for the black and gold. Predictably, OUA West Division MVP candidate Colin Behenna (Waterloo) was also heavily involved I the Waterloo offense, registering two assists in the defeat. The division scoring leader now has four consecutive multi-point games, and he's put up at least one point in 11 of his last 12 contests.
Mike Morrison (Hamilton) turned aside 32 shots in the Waterloo net, while the OUA East Division MVP contender Kevin Bailie lived up to his billing in the Queen's crease, stopping 47 shots in the victory.
The Gaels opened the scoring when McGillis shoved home a rebound just 7 minutes into the game, but Chappell answered with a roof job off a faceoff win to even things at 1-1 after 20 minutes.
The back-and-forth second frame started with another Gaels marker, this one from Doggett on a goal-mouth feed, making it 2-1 for the visitors. But Silas blew a one-timed rocket from the point past Bailie just 29 seconds later to square things at 2-2.
The Warriors kept coming in the second, as Mackie beat Bailie short side to give Waterloo its first lead of the evening at 3-2. Less than a minute later, though, Bloom took advantage of a Mike Moffat (Waterloo) giveaway to even the score at 3-3.
Before the second period ended, Behenna created a goal out of nothing when he raced on to a loose puck, lifted a defender's stick, and fed Nicoll all in one motion. The rookie made no mistake with his one-timer, and the Warriors were in front 4-3 after 2 periods.
That lead stood all the way up to the 19:40 mark of the third, when Bloom scored on a pretty individual effort to send the game into overtime knotted at 4-4.
The Gaels took back-to-back minors in the first overtime session, the second of which spilled over into the second overtime period. Bailie made a few big stops, and Joe Underwood (Canton) ripped one off the crossbar, ensuring the Warriors wouldn't be able to end the game on a man advantage.
Shortly after getting back to full strength, Ming followed Doggett in on a break and cleaned up the garbage, giving the Gaels the extra point in the standings.
Waterloo will now head out on the road to finish their 2015-16 regular season, as they travel to face the Brock Badgers and Western Mustangs next weekend.
Source: Waterloo Warriors
The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's hockey team fell 5-0 to the Ryerson Rams on Saturday, February 6 at Varsity Arena.
With two regular season games remaining, the Blues are now 10-14-2 in eighth place, but have already clinched a spot in the playoffs.
The Rams opened the scoring 6:47 into the contest when Marcus Hinds found the back of the net. Ryerson led 1-0 after 20 minutes of action.
Ryerson extended their lead early in the second period with a goal off the stick of Lucas Froese and the visitor's took a 2-0 advantage into the second intermission.
The Rams put the game away with a Jamie Lewis goal 31 seconds into the third period. Jason Kelly and Kyle Blaney added two goals in the last five minutes to round out the scoring.
Blues netminder Andrew Hunt made 23 saves in the loss.
The Varsity Blues return to action this Thursday, February 11 as they head to Guelph to take on the Gryphons. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m.
Before the game, the Blues helped cap off the first-ever U of T SAMHI (Student-Athlete Mental Health Initiative) organization's 'Mental Health Matchup' weekend with a ceremonial puck drop. U of T SAMHI representative Sara Giovannetti and Ryerson SAMHI representative Emily Galliani Pecchia joined Beth Ali, Acting Assistant Dean, Co-Curricular Physical Activity & Sport at centre ice.
Source: Toronto Varsity Blues
Gryphons fall to Thunderwolves in OT
GUELPH, ON - The Guelph Gryphons men's hockey team knows that effort produces points. The Gryphons were far from their best in the second game of a back-to-back with Lakehead and despite a dramatic late power-play equalizer from captain Nick Trecapelli, Kelin Ainsworth's goal at 2:50 of overtime gave the Thunderwolves a 2-1 win Saturday at Gryphon Centre Arena.
The Gryphons looked flat for much of the game and appeared done after Carson Dubchak got loose down low and gave the Thunderwolves a 1-0 lead at 10:25 of the third period. But Guelph was energized on a late power play and with goaltender Scott Stajcer pulled to put the hosts on a 6-on-4, Trecapelli went hard to the net and buried a rebound behind Devin Street with just 21 seconds left in regulation to tie the game 1-1.
"We worked very hard late in the game to salvage a critical point," said head coach Shawn Camp, who sat some regulars but felt he had plenty of bodies available.
But the single point was all that Guelph could manufacture as Ainsworth beat Stajcer just as the Gryphons finished killing off a frustrating minor for too many men on the ice.
It was a long week for the hosts as they tried to put a miserable January behind them. Guelph won just three times in eight outings last month and they had a chance to replicate that win total in the first week of February alone. The Gryphons (15-11-1) entered the game clicking offensively after a 5-1 win over Laurier Tuesday and a 6-2 victory against Lakehead in the first of the two meetings Friday. But the goals were harder to come by Saturday.
"We have to manage our success," said Camp. "We had two good wins and we have to make sure we consistently have that kind of effort. We have been out-working other teams and that's why we've been successful."
"We looked a little sluggish," said third-year forward Rob De Fulviis. "The playoffs are coming up and we can't play like that or we'll get bounced early."
Stajcer, making his fifth appearance of the season in the Guelph net, was arguably the best Gryphon on the night, stopping 32 of 34 shots faced. The 6'3", second-year goalie from Cambridge was especially good in the first period when the Gryphons were called for a string of undisciplined penalties. Stajcer also took a hard shot off the mask in the first period but didn't look troubled.
"Scott had an excellent game," said Camp. "He definitely gave us a chance to win."
Green made 36 saves for the Thunderwolves and flashed his quick glove a couple times late when Guelph was pushing for the equalizer.
Lakehead (7-15-4) was the more active team in the second period. The Thunderwolves attacked with speed when given the opportunity and forced Stajcer into a series of stops, while the Gryphons couldn't replicate the offensive output they produced earlier in the week.
Guelph created most of the early chances, the best coming on a hard wrister from Trevor Morbeck in the right circle that rang off the crossbar and just missed the top left corner about two minutes into the game. But the Gryphons got called for three straight minors and had to put their penalty killers to work, allowing Lakehead to get some offensive rhythm after a slow start.
"We took some penalties because we weren't moving our feet," said Camp. "But our penalty kill was excellent."
NOTES:
- Kyle Neuber and Robert Lepine picked up assists on Trecapelli's goal...
- Guelph outshot Lakehead 37-34...
- The Gryphons wrap up OUA regular season play next Thursday, Feb. 11 when they host the University of Toronto. Game time is 7:30 pm.
Source: Guelph Gryphons