Banner Season: Patriotes collect back-to-back Queen’s Cup titles following lengthy battle with Windsor
Windsor, Ont. – For the second time in the last three Queen’s Cup finals, a winner would not be decided until the third overtime, but within the first minute of that sixth period, the UQTR Patriotes earned their second straight OUA championship, defeating the Windsor Lancers 3-2.
The 111th edition of the conference’s men’s hockey championship started with a flurry of activity, which was kicked off by the now two-time defending champions.
David Noël netted the opener at the 9:11 mark of the opening period to put the visitors out in front. The Lancers would bounce back just over seven minutes later off of a sharp-angled shot from Matt McNamara that beat all-star netminder Alexis Gravel.
The Pats would take their second lead of the game with just over one minute to go in the frame, courtesy of Louis-Filip Cote, who capitalized on some crisp passing to put the puck past Windsor goalie Nathan Torchia. But the first period scoring wouldn’t end there.
The hosts would once again find an equalizer in short order, doing so just before the end of opening 20 minutes. Nolan Gardiner took the drop pass from captain Mason Kohn and made no mistake in putting it past the UQTR goaltender.
Despite heading into the first intermission with both offences firing on all cylinders, the scoring would come to a screeching halt when the players hit the ice thereafter. The following 40 minutes of regulation play solved nothing, even with the Patriotes peppering the OUA West goaltender of the year, Torchia, with 17 shots in the middle frame.
With nothing solved through three periods of play, the crowd of over 1,000 at the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex were treated to some extra hockey.
Nine shots apiece in the first overtime solved nothing, and a determined offensive push from the blue and gold in the fifth period – one that resulted in 15 shots against Gravel – produced goose eggs on the scoreboard once again, sending the squads into a third extra period.
Needing just over a minute of play to become the longest Queen’s Cup game in the illustrious history of the OUA title game, the 2022-23 finale seemed destined to make its way into the record books.
That is until Felix Lauzon changed the narrative.
Coming into the zone and making a push for the net, the third-year centre managed to put one past Torchia on the team’s 60th shot of the contest and wrapped up the lengthy festivities just 38 seconds into the third period of extra play.
Gravel picked up the win on the heels of a 54-save performance, while Torchia, despite the loss, turned away 57 shots for the silver-medal winning Lancers. McNamara and Gardiner finished with a goal and an assist apiece, while seven different Patriotes produced a point in the win.
With the 3-2 win in tow, the Patriotes claimed their second consecutive OUA title, and alongside their Queen’s Cup combatants and the bronze-medal winning Concordia Stingers, will now turn their attention to the U SPORTS Men’s Hockey Championship from March 16th to 19th at the University of Prince Edward Island.
