February 20, 2016

Ridgebacks beat Gaels 4-3 in overtime for force Game 3 on Sunday

OSHAWA, Ont. – UOIT's Ryan Doucette (Waterloo, Ont.) scored 22 seconds into overtime to give the Ridgebacks a 4-3 victory over Queen's to force game three in their OUA eastern conference quarter-final series.

Queen's

UOIT

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Queen's

UOIT

Queen's

UOIT

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Queen's

UOIT

OSHAWA, Ont. – UOIT's Ryan Doucette (Waterloo, Ont.) scored 22 seconds into overtime to give the Ridgebacks a 4-3 victory over Queen's to force game three in their OUA eastern conference quarter-final series.

This will be the first time in program history that UOIT will host a game three of a playoff series with the elimination game taking place on Sunday, Feb. 21 at the Campus Ice Centre. Puck drop is at 3:30 p.m.

Doucette, who was not on the ice for the majority of the last half of the game due to an injury suffered in the second period, stole the puck from Queen's defender Joseph Luongo in overtime and beat goaltender Kevin Bailie blocker side.

"It was key for us to score early," said head coach Curtis Hodgins. "Down to so few bodies during the game, our guys played so many minutes. We caught a break and we capitalized on it."

To go along with Douette's injury, Connor Jarvis (Port Union, Ont.) got knocked out of the game in his first shift while Cameron Yuill received a five-minute major and game misconduct for charging. Down to eight forwards, Hodgins was forced to shift around his lines all night while defensemen Riley Daly (Lorette, Man.) moved up to forward.

With their backs against the wall and facing elimination, UOIT did not back down and came out firing outshooting Queen's 20-3 in the first period and 33-14 after forty minutes, resulting in a 3-0 lead.

Jason Shaw (Belleville, Ont.) opened up scoring with a shot from the slot that beat Bailie midway through the first. Four minutes later, Kingston's own Ben Blasko lit the lamp in front of his family and friends to extend the lead to 2-0.

Mark Petaccio (Sicklerville, N.J.), the Ridgebacks leading scorer during the regular season, would record his first goal of the playoffs with 3:22 to go in the second period, giving what UOIT thought was a comfortable lead.

Seven minutes into the third period, it looked as if UOIT was in cruise control heading back to Oshawa for game three nursing their 3-0 lead. That is when Darcy Greenaway took the game over. The Oakville native scored back-to-back goals less than a minute apart to put the Gaels within one.

Brendan O'Neill (Ilderton, Ont.) would shake off the goals and make several key stops. However, Queen's showed their resiliency eventually finding a way to slip one by the second year goaltender as Shawn Bordeleau tied it with 3:30 remaining in the game, setting up overtime and Doucette's heroic goal.

One lone bright spot for UOIT when it came to the injured list was that Jeff Braithwaite (Ennismore, Ont.) made his return to the lineup after missing game one and the final two games of the regular season.

With game three in less that 48 hours, Hodgins knows that his team will have to lay it all on the line in order to advance to the second round for the first time in program history.

"We are going to regroup tomorrow and find out where we stand with injuries," said Hodgins. "We are not going to change a lot. We played a good game tonight and we are going bring it on Sunday."

Shots would finish 41-25 in favour of UOIT, with O'Neill making 22 saves for his first playoff victory. UOIT was 0-for-4 with the man advantage while Queen's went 1-for-3.

The win ends the Ridgebacks nine-game losing streak in the playoffs with the team's last win coming in game one of their 2010-11 series with the Laurier Golden Hawks.

On Sunday night UOIT will look to win their first playoff series in program history. The Ridgebacks are 0-2 in game three situations losing to Western (2010) and Laurier (2011).