M-HOCKEY ROUNDUP: Blues knock off No. 2 McGill

Laurier Golden Hawks @ York Lions

Rookie goaltender Andrew Perugini stopped all 24 shots he faced and picked up his first shutout of the season as the York University Lions men's hockey team defeated the Laurier Golden Hawks by a score of 1-0 on Thursday (Jan. 12) at Canlan Ice Sports.

Source: Lions Athletics

Windsor Lancers @ Guelph Gryphons

The Guelph Gryphon men’s hockey team broke a three-game losing streak tonight with a convincing 6-1 win over the Windsor Lancers at the Gryphon Centre.
 
A four-goal rally in the final frame secured the victory for the Gryphons as they advance to 5-11-4 on the season and the Lancers fall to 9-10-0. 
 
Cale Jefferies (Glenboro, MB) and Andrew Merrett (Vernon, BC) led the Gryphon offence with two goalies apiece and an assist for Merrett; while JT MacDonald (Niagara Falls, Ont.) tallied three helpers.
 
The first period produced zero offence on either side as Gryphon goalie Cody St Jacques (Iroquois Falls, Ont.) and Windsor goalie Parker Van Buskirk (Windsor, Ont.) were outstanding and kept their teams in the game.
 
The Lancers got on the board first just 19 seconds into the second period when Evan Stibbard scored a breakaway goal to put his team ahead 1-0.  
 
The Gryphons responded to knot the game at 1-1 at 4:02 of the second period. Ken Peroff (Astorville, Ont.) made a great centering pass to Cale Jefferies who fired the puck past a sprawling Van Buskirk.  
 
Guelph earned the lead at 11:57 in the second. JT MacDonald fired a pass into the slot, finding defensemen Nathan Martine (Guelph, Ont.) behind the Windsor defence.  In tight, Martine fired a shot that slipped out of Van Buskirk’s glove and Martine didn’t hesitate firing the rebound into the yawning net. 
 
The Gryphons tightly played defence was able to keep the Lancers out of the threat of their own end for majority of the final period.  Guelph’s offence would break through however, as the scoring rally began early on.  Andrew Merrett scored a slap shot at 1:53 to put the Gryphons ahead 3-1. Jefferies earned his second of the night at 3:19 and then Merrett followed up with his second at 5:10 to put the Gryphons ahead 5-1. The Lancers would then make a goalie change placing Dan Savelli (Burlington, Ont.) into the game.  Van Buskirk would finish with 24 saves on the night.
 
The final goal of the game was a powerplay marker scored by Matt Lyall (Richmond Hill, Ont.) at 14:53 to put the Gryphons ahead 6-1. 
 
Guelph outshot Windsor 37-28 in the game.  The Gryphons were 1/7 on the man advantage, while the Lancers went 0/8. St. Jacques finished the game with an impressive 27 saves on 28 shots.

Source: Gryphons Athletics

The Carleton University Ravens men’s hockey team recovered from a five-game losing streak Friday night, defeating the Nipissing University Lakers 5-4 on the road.

Andrew Self (Peterborough, Ont.) added another midway through the frame and Shane Bakker (Navan, Ont.) followed with the team’s third shorthanded goal to give Carleton a 4-2 lead heading into the third.

Source: Ravens Athletics

KINGSTON, Ont. (January 13, 2012) - The Queen's Gaels (9-8-1) continued their strong play in 2012 as eight different Gaels had multi-point nights in a 9-2 win over the visiting Concorida Stingers (9-8-2).

Keenan Murray of Barry's Bay, Ont. and Kelly Jackson of Toronto each had a pair of goals while Payton Liske of Welland, Ont. and Jordan Mirwaldt of Winnipeg had a goal and two assists in the win. Riley Whitlock of Calgary stopped 32 shots for the win. Concordia was led by Mike Stinziani of Montreal who scored a power play marker.

The Gaels dominated play from the start scoring on four occasions in the first frame including a shorthanded marker from Murray. In the second period the Stingers Stinziani tallied on the power play to cut into the Gaels lead but Queen's scored five straight times to put the game out of reach.

The Gaels cruised to a 9-2 win over Concordia who now sits only one point ahead of Queen's for seventh in the OUA East division.

Queen's returns to the ice on January 18 when they travel to RMC to take on the Paladins. 

KINGSTON - Defencemen Marc-Andre Dorion and Keven Dupont staked McGill to a 2-0 lead as the No.2-ranked Redmen cruised to a 5-0 road shutout over Royal Military College at Constantine Arena, Friday.

Source: Redmen Athletics

TORONTO- Newcomer T.J. Battani (Metamora, MI) tallied a game-high three assists and Ryerson had six different goal scorers as the men's hockey team recorded a much-needed 6-3 victory against the downtown rival Toronto Varsity Blues on Friday evening.

Steve Gleeson (Toronto) made the most of his second start of the season, stopping 32 of 35 shots that came his way to record the victory.

Source: Rams Athletics

The Lakehead Thunderwolves hockey team won a high-scoring affair against the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks with an 8-5 victory in Oshawa, Ontario on Friday night.

Ontario Tech held a 2-1 lead after the first period, with goals from Luke Van Moerkerke and Tony Rizzi.  Adam Sergerie scored Lakehead's only goal of the opening period, one in which the Ridgebacks outshot the Wolves 10-9.

Mitch Fillman tied it up at 2-2 just 12 seconds into the second period, but Ontario Tech re-claimed the lead on a Jeremy Whelan blast at the 4:26 mark.  Matt Caria and Brennan Menard scored less than two minutes apart midway through the middle frame to give Lakehead a 4-3 lead heading into the third.  Shots on goal favored Lakehead 11-9 in the period.

Lakehead broke the game wide open in the final period, with four straight goals in a little over a ten-minute span.  Mike Hammond got things started with a powerplay marker just 38 seconds into the period, and then Fillman scored his second of the game, with Riley McIntosh and Andrew Wilkins addding two more scores.  That offensive outburst gave the Wolves an 8-3 lead with just under nine minutes remaining in the game. 

Josh Vatri and Van Moerkerke got a couple of late goals for the Ridgebacks to make the score respectable, but Lakehead still skated away with the 8-5 win.  Shots on goal in the third period were 18-12 for Ontario Tech, giving the Ridgebacks a 37-32 edge for the game.  Alex Dupuis made 32 saves in goal for the Wolves, while Jeff Dawson had 24 stops for the Ridgebacks.

The Wolves have won their last nine league games in a row, and are now tied with the Western Ontario Mustangs atop the OUA West Division with 32 points.

The Men in Garnet & Grey travelled to UQTR to take on the second-placed Patriotes in OUA hockey action Friday evening. However, the Gee-Gees would return home empty handed after losing 5-1 to a Patriotes team that had an answer for anything the uOttawa team threw their way.

The York University Lions men's hockey team scored two goals less than 10 minutes apart in a dominant second period to defeat the Waterloo Warriors by a score of 3-2 on Friday (Jan. 13) at Columbia Ice Field in Waterloo., Ont.

Prior to Friday's game, the Lions had lost two straight to the Warriors (11-6-3), and those two losses (four points) were all that separated both teams in the OUA West standings. With Friday's win, the Lions closed that gap to two points and moved closer to usurping the Warriors for third place.

Source: Lions Athletics

GUELPH, Ont. - The Brock University men's hockey team (10-9-1 OUA) defeated the Guelph Gryphons (5-12-4 OUA) by the score of 5-2 on the road Saturday night.

Source: Badgers Athletics

Carleton Ravens @ Ryerson Rams

TORONTO - The Ryerson Rams men's hockey team won its second game is as many days as David Grant scored with 1:02 left in regulation to lift the Rams to a 3-2 victory over the visiting Carleton Ravens on Saturday night.

Ryerson was 1-for-6 on the power play while Carleton was 0-for-5 with the man advantage.

Source: Rams Athletics

Byron Elliott’s two-goal performance led the Varsity Blues men’s hockey team to a 4-3 win over the No. 2 McGill Redmen on Saturday, January 14 at Varsity Arena.

With the win, the Blues improve to 10-7-3 and remain sixth in the OUA East division.

Elliott’s goals were his 14th and 15th of the season. The Burlington, Ont. native leads the Blues in both goals and points (29). The Blues also saw goals from Kyle Ventura (Scarborough, Ont.), and Blake Boddy (Ajax, Ont.).

"We provided the team with a simple game plan and for the most part, we followed it," commented Varsity Blues head coach Darren Lowe. "We had some tremendous goaltending and timely scoring. It was a real team effort."

The Blues entertained a raucous Saturday night crowd, scoring just four minutes into the first period on a high-light reel goal from Elliott. With the Blues on a penalty kill, Elliott stole the puck at his own blue line and raced in, fighting off a McGill defender before roofing the puck over Redmen goalie Hubert Morin to put Toronto up 1-0.

Later in the period, Blues goaltender and Cremona, Alta. native Garrett Sheehan stopped Max Langelier-Parent on a penalty shot to preserve the Blues lead.

Toronto added to their lead midway through the second, when Boddy took a stretch pass from Ventura and wristed the puck underneath Morin’s blocker.

Ventura then picked up his second point of the night, grabbing the puck near the blue line and cutting to the slot before sliding it five-hole to put the Blues up 3-0.

McGill would eventually respond with two powerplay goals, one late in the second from Marc-Olivier Vachon, and the other early in the third off the stick of Ben Morse, to cut U of T’s lead to one.

But the Blues received more heroics from Elliott. The veteran forward blasted a slapshot from the top of the circle that beat Morin high over the glove to restore the two-goal lead.

The Redmen would again narrow the gap on a goal from Andrew Wright, but were unable to produce the tying goal in the latter half of the third period.

Sheehan made 36 saves on the night en route to being named the game’s second star.

The Redmen’s loss is just their second regulation loss of the season. They are now 16-2-2.

The Blues return to action next Thursday, January 19 at Ryerson against the Rams. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.

Source: Varsity Blues Athletics

OSHAWA, Ont. – Making his OUA debut, UOIT goaltender Jacob Rattie of Niagara Falls, Ont. made 46 saves to lead the Ridgebacks to an 8-5 victory over the No. 7 ranked Lakehead Thunderwolves in OUA men’s hockey action.

The win put an end to Lakehead’s nine game winning streak and has the Ridgebacks back in the playoff hunt in the OUA western conference.

“The team really worked hard for our goaltender tonight,” said head coach Marlin Muylaert. “Jacob has been at every practice for the past two years and he earned this opportunity in which he took advantage of. We needed this win as the team really stepped up their game.”

Rattie, who played his junior career with the Niagara Falls Canucks, had only dressed for UOIT in OUA conference play and had never got into a game before tonight.

The Ridgebacks came out flying in front of Rattie as they scored four first period goals, three of which were in the first seven minutes of the game. The team took a 4-1 lead into the locker room after twenty minutes.

UOIT had a 6-2 advantage late in the second period, but Lakehead stormed back with three consecutive goals to cut into the Ridgebacks lead to 6-5.

With Lakehead pressing for the equalizer, Rattie and his defence stood strong and the team scored two late goals including an empty netter to give UOIT an 8-5 victory.

A program record seven Ridgebacks had multi-point games as the blue and white had their best offensive performance of the year.

Jesse Stoughton and Brendan Wise each had two goal nights while Mike Noyes, Kyle Wetering, Kevin George and Tony Rizzi had three points apiece. Wetering’s goal in the first period was the 25th of his career.

Luke VanMoerkerke finished the night with a goal and an assist, giving him five points in the weekend series against Lakehead.

Keith Grondin was Lakehead’s leading scorer with two goals. Lakehead goalie Jeff Bosch made 28 saves in the losing effort.

Both power plays were busy and effective as Lakehead went 3-for-9 while UOIT was 2-for-7 with the man advantage.

UOIT will look to build momentum from the win and put together their first winning streak of the season as they host the Guelph Gryphons on Thursday, January 19 at the Campus Ice Centre. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Guelph is one of the teams within striking distance for UOIT, as they are ahead of the Ridgebacks by just five points.

Source: Ridgebacks Athletics

LONDON, Ont. – The Western Mustangs regained the first place position in the OUA West Division with a 5-2 victory over the Windsor Lancers on Jan. 14 at Thompson Arena.
 
Western (16-2-2) started the game tied with Lakehead (16-4-0) at 32 points apiece, but with the win and a Thunderwolves loss to UOIT, the Mustangs lead the West with 34 points. Also with the win, Western improves to 10-0-0 at Thompson Arena as the only team in the OUA to be undefeated at home.
 
Keaton Turkiewicz, Jason Furlong, Kevin Baker, Tyler Peters and Zach Harden tallied for the Mustangs as Steve Ferry and Tom Craig scored for Windsor.
 
Windsor’s Matt McCready was called for a slashing penalty at 6:19 of the first period. Western’s powerplay, ranked first in the OUA, started pressuring the Lancers looking for the opening goal. Zach Harnden held the puck behind Windsor’s net before sliding a pass over to Kevin Baker in the corner. Baker centered a pass to Turkiewicz who one-timed a shot past Lancer’s netminder Parker Van Buskirk.
 
Only 13 seconds later, Furlong gained control of the puck in Windsor’s zone. Furlong beat the Lancer defender then deked around Van Buskirk,, adding Western’s second goal.
 
With just under two minutes left in the first period, Turkiewicz fired a shot at the Lancer’s net that missed just wide. The puck bounced off the end boards to the side of the net where Baker fired the shot into the back of the net past Van Buskirk who didn’t have enough time to react.
 
Turkiewicz is tied with George Lovatsis of Concordia for scoring with 16 goals each, but Turkiewicz continues to lead the CIS and OUA with 40 points overall. Head coach Clarke Singer commented on Turkiewicz’s play as a Mustang stating, “He’s really evolved as a player this year, he does a great job in all three zones. “ Singer recognized Turkiewicz’s success adding, “It’s very well deserved. He’s working very hard and he’s a big part of what we’re doing.”
 
Western started the second period without missing a beat as they attacked Lancer’s territory. Left winger Peters worked his way down low and managed to get a shot off as he was falling through the slot. Peters’ shot beat Van Buskirk at 1:43 in the second and Dan Savelli took over in net for Windsor.
 
Windsor continued to press as they charged the Western net on a 2-on-1. Mustangs defender Andrew Eastman slid to block the pass across but Lancer’s Ferry fired a shot on net instead. Ferry beat Unice through the legs for a score of 4-1.
 
Craig added Windsor’s second goal just over two minutes later. Unice stopped the Lancer’s initial shot but couldn’t get across to the other post in time to stop Craig.
 
Windsor’s netminder Savelli made 18 saves to hold Western scoreless through almost two full periods. Both teams continued to battle and Western had a goal disallowed with six minutes remaining in the game because of a high-stick.
 
Harnden added an empty-net goal for a 5-2 final.
 
Despite Western’s ranking in the OUA on the powerplay, the Mustangs went 1/6 on man-advantage opportunities. Singer noted the importance of man-advantage opportunities adding, “As you look at the playoffs…special teams is going to be a difference maker.”
 
Western held the Lancers scoreless on their six chances.
 
The Mustangs will travel to Thunder Bay next weekend for back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday night against the Lakehead Thunderwolves.

Source: Mustangs Athletics

WATERLOO, Ont. (January 14, 2012) - For the second time in two meetings this season, the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks men's hockey (6-13-1) defeated the University of Waterloo Warriors (11-6-4) as they took home a 2-1 overtime victory on Saturday night. 

January 18, 2012
7:00 pm - Queen's @ RMC
8:30 pm - UQTR @ Concordia

January 19, 2012
7:30 pm - Toronto @ Ryerson
7:30 pm - Guelph @ UOIT