Bailie shuts out Gee-Gees to advance Gaels to Queen's Cup OUA East semifinal

KINGSTON, Ont. (February 18, 2017) - The No.10 Queen's Gaels and OUA East 3rd seed defeated the 6th seed Ottawa Gee-Gees 2-0 in OUA men's playoff hockey action from the Memorial Centre in Kingston. The Gaels won the series with Ottawa 2-1 and advance to the East semi-final where they will meet Concordia.

GAME FLOW

The Gaels got off to a quick start in game three and tested Ottawa goaltender Graham Hunt multiple times early, including a partial break by Darcy Greenaway (Wilton, Ont.) but could not beat the Ottawa netminder. 
 
Eric Margo (North Vancouver, B.C.) took the first penalty of the game for cross-checking and sent the Gee-Gees to the powerplay. Queen's goaltender Kevin Bailie (Belleville, Ont.) and the Gaels managed to kill off the Ottawa attack and the game remained scoreless.

Late in the opening frame the Gaels put themselves in front. Eric Ming (Williamstown, Ont.) circled around with the puck out into the slot and found Spencer Abraham (Campbellville, Ont.)  at the boards close to the blue line, he fed a pass to a wide-open Ryan Bloom (Calgary) in front who was able to deflect the puck on his backhand up and over Hunt to give Queen's a 1-0 lead heading into the first intermission.

The Gaels started with momentum in the second as Hunt was forced to make a big pad save on Ming and another save on a shot from the slot. 

Peter Angelopolous found himself in the box but Queen's was once again able to shut down the Gee-Gee powerplay. Fresh out of the box off a face-off, Angelopolous took the puck  out of the face-off dot and fired a wrist shot over the glove of Hunt to put Queen's ahead 2-0.

The Gee-Gees closed out the period with a penalty for too many men on the ice and the Gaels went to the intermission up two and with 1:34 of powerplay time left.

The final period saw numerous powerplays for both sides and solid goaltending from both Bailie and Hunt.

Ottawa had a brief five-on-three powerplay and pulled their goalie for the final two minutes and change but could not beat the Gaels goaltender Bailie who finished with 13 saves in the final period and 24 overall for the shutout.

The Gaels now advance to the OUA East semi-final where they will meet the second seeded Concordia Stingers.

FINAL SAY
"You don't have a choice in a game like this, everybody is tired but it had to be done. We got out to an early lead thankfully and we were able to bring it home from there. We just trusted our defence, trusted our systems and we know that Kevin (Bailie) is going to show up and do his best for us every night and tonight he did a fantastic job." - Eric Ming

BY THE NUMBERS
3rd in 4 - It marks the third time in four years that the Gaels have advanced past the opening round
1-1 - The Gaels and Stingers split their season series 1-1 with the visiting teams winning each game
1st - Career playoff shutout for Kevin Bailie
8 - Career playoff wins for Bailie

UP NEXT
The Gaels will meet the Concordia Stingers in the OUA East semifinal, stay tuned to gogaelsgo.com for more details on the full series schedule.

Source: Queen's Gaels