WARRIORS GRAB HOLD OF FIRST, WHILE OTTAWA'S MCLEOD FILLS THE NET
The Golden Hawks kept their perch atop the Mid West Division with two victories on the week, beginning with a decisive 5-2 win over the Guelph Gryphons Friday in Guelph. Rookie forward Jeff Borrows scored the first two goals of his OUA career and added an assist for Laurier, while Nathan Peacock picked up two helpers. Aaron Forer made 32 saves in between the pipes. Chris Baker and Thomas Laplante had the Guelph goals. The Hawks improved to 11-2-1-0 with a 4-1 win over the York Lions Saturday in Waterloo. With the scored knotted at 1-1 entering the third period, Mark Voakes, James Edgar and Tyler Grover all tallied in a span of less than four minutes to clinch the win. Grover and Voakes also added an assist each. Forer, a second-year Saskatchewan native, got the call again and made 30 saves for his second win of the weekend.
While Windsor forward Jordie Preston entered the week of action atop the CIS goal scoring race, teammate Alex White was displaying his own offensive touch, scoring four times as the Lancers pummeled the Concordia Stingers 6-1 Friday in Montreal. White's first of the night gave the Lancers a 2-1 lead in the second period and with his team up 3-1, the fourth-year winger from Tecumseh, Ont. scored three straight to grab a natural hat-trick in a 15-minute stretch. Reese Kalleitner kept the Stingers at bay, making 27 saves for the win. The two teams hooked up again Saturday and a short-handed effort by Windsor's Drew Petkoff at 14:45 of the third period was the difference as the Lancers posted a 3-2 win to sweep four points in Montreal. Preston notched his 16th of the year in the win, while White added his fifth of the weekend. Kalleitner made 29 saves for his fifth win of the year. Jesse Goodsell and Mike Baslyk scored for Concordia.
The Toronto Varsity Blues extended their lead in the Mid East to 10 points after picking up two wins on the week, including a dominating 7-1 victory over the Queen's Golden Gaels Friday and a 3-0 shutout of the RMC Paladins Saturday. Chris Gray scored twice for the Blues and Scott Malcolm added two late goals in addition to an assist as the Blues cruised in Kingston. Julian Sarraino had three points, including Toronto's third goal in the opening period, which gave the visitors a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes. Gray scored his pair in the second period and Malcolm chipped in the final two in the third, while Ryan Grinnell stopped 26 of the 27 shots that came his way. Brady Olsen had the lone goal for the Gaels. Grinnell turned away all 30 the following night, earning his first shutout of the year and ninth win overall. Joe Rand scored twice and Greg Palka added another in third, helping Toronto pick up their 17th and 18th points of the year, 10 ahead of second-place Queen's in the Mid East.
With McGill dropping points this week, the UQTR Patriotes used their offensive firepower to take two wins from defending Queen's Cup champion Lakehead in Trois-Rivieres. Jonathan Boutin had a goal and four assists, Mathieu Gravel had two goals and two assists and Thiery Poudrier chipped in a goal and two helpers as the Patriotes skated to an impressive 8-5 win over the Thunderwolves Friday. Yan Gaudette added two late goals for the hosts, while Dany Dallaire made 19 saves for the victory in net. Mark Soares opened the scoring for Lakehead and then tied the game at 5-5 early in the third period with a power-play goal, his third marker of the night. But the hat-trick wasn't enough as Boutoin notched the winner at 11:28 before Gaudette clinched it with his two straight goals. The feisty rematch featured 81 penalty minutes but the end result was the same as UQTR got two goals and an assist from Eric Beaudin in a 4-2 win. Sylvain Michaud got the start in net for UQTR and responded with a big 33-save performance, leaving the Patriotes as the only team in the league yet to lose in regulation (9-0-1-3, first place in the Far east with 22 points).
In other OUA action, York beat Brock 5-1 Thursday. Louis-Simon Allaire's power-play goal at 10:51 of the third period earned the Redmen a 4-4 draw with Western Friday, while RMC defeated Ryerson 7-3. Clinton McCollough and Brad Walford had two goals and an assist each as Queen's dumped the Rams 8-2 Saturday. Ottawa's McLeod took the CIS scoring lead with an incredible four-goal, two-assist effort as the Gee-Gees beat the Mustangs 6-5 Saturday in the nation's capital. McLeod leads the country with 18 goals. Elsewhere Saturday, six Brock players had multi-point nights as the Badgers blew past Guelph 7-2 in St. Catharines. Ryan Del Monte paced Brock with a goal and three assists, while Nathan Hooper chipped in four helpers.