McGill Redmen (1) @ Ottawa Gee-Gees (6)
OTTAWA - Nicolas Biniek, a sophomore centre from Montreal, tallied the game-winner at 6:35 of the second period as the No.2-ranked McGill men's hockey team skated to a 5-3 win over the Ottawa Gee-Gees at the uOttawa Sports Complex, Friday, to sweep their OUA East best-of-three semifinal series 2-0.
For the third straight game, five different players scored for McGill, who had a 29-27 advantage in shots. An impressive total of 11 different Redmen have now scored over the team's four playoffs contests.
"We had a very good start and maintained a good pace over the first two periods," said Redmen head coach Kelly Nobes. "Again our scoring was spread out five ways, which is what we need to do to win. The one thing that concerned me a bit was our power-play (0-for-7). We had some nice looks but we failed to capitalize for the third straight game and that's got to change."
McGill struck four times in an eight-minute span, to take a comfortable 4-1 lead before the seven-minute mark of the second period.
Team captain Evan Vossen scored at 18:56 of the opening period and defencemen Nicolas Therrien made it 2-0 at 2:23 of the middle stanza when he converted a rare 4-on-1 rush after an ill-timed line change by Ottawa.
"Our execution was just bad," said Ottawa head coach Réal Paiement, a former McGill defenceman and assistant coach in the early 1980s. "We just did not do what we needed to do defensively, and they are a good skating, hard working team. The difference between the two teams is the swagger and confidence that McGill has."
Maxime Chamberland gave the Gee-Gees a brief glimmer of hope when he made it 2-1 just before the five-minute mark but any spark they had was snuffed out moments later when forward Marc-André Daneau scored at 6:16, followed 22 seconds after that by Biniek's decisive goal.
Max Langelier-Parent, a senior centre from Léry, Que., made it 5-1 with a shorthanded effort at 16:29 of the middle period. It was the 12th career shorthanded marker (a school record) for the 6-foot-2, 225-pound speedster, who also added an assist. He is tied for second among the league's playoff scoring leaders with a 3-4-7 record in just four contests.
"McGill has an extremely high level of skill," Paiement added. "Man-to-man, their skill level is higher than ours at this given time. They are one of the hardest working teams and they are well coached, so it's a tough system to go up against."
Rounding out the scoring for the Gee-Gees was Stephen Blunden with two in the final period to make the score somewhat respectable.
Russell Abbott, Ottawa's starting goalie, was yanked after five goals on 21 shots and replace by Aaron Barton in the final stanza, who tuned aside all eight shots faced.
Goaltender Hubert Morin made 24 saves, improving to 20-5 lifetime in post-season play and 76-26-2 in 109 career games overall for McGill. The fourth-year engineering major is eight victories shy of the all-time school record set by Mathieu Poitras, who posted an 84-36-6 mark between 2004 and 2008.
Source: Redmen Athletics
Western Mustangs (1) @ Brock Badgers (6)
ST. CATHARINES, Ont. – Jason Furlong scored Western’s go-ahead goal with seven seconds left in the game to defeat the Brock Badgers and send the Mustangs through to the OUA West Finals. Western hosted the Badgers on Wed. Feb. 22 and pulled a game ahead in the best-of-three series with a 5-3 win before finishing the battle out on Fri. Feb. 24.
Kevin Baker and Yashar Famanara also added goals for Western as CJ Dickson and Sean Jones scored for Brock.
Josh Unice backed the Mustangs in goal as they outshot the Badgers 30-24. Western capitalized on one of four powerplay chances while limiting Brock to one man-advantage goal on six opportunities.
Source: Mustangs Athletics
Windsor Lancers (5) @ Lakehead Thunderwolves (2)
The Windsor Lancers Men's Hockey team downed the Lakehead Thunderwolves 4-1 Friday night in game two of the conference semi-finals at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, ON in front of a crowd of 3,410.
In the scoreless first period, Lancer goaltender Parker Van Buskirk was strong in net, making some big saves throughout the period, as the Thunderwolves outshot the Lancers 12-1 in the first ten minutes of the opening period.
Both goaltenders made key saves early in the second period to keep the game scoreless until late in the middle frame.
Windsor’s Tom Craig finally broke the scoreless tie at 18:22 of the second period after a giveaway behind the Lakehead net.
Windsor started the third period off with a bang as Drew Palmer scored on a blast from the point on the power-play just twenty-nine seconds into the period. Just thirty-three seconds later, Kyle Makaric scored on a nice shot from the slot that eluded Wolves’ goaltender Alex Dupuis, putting Windsor up 3-0. Makaric scored again at 12:46 of the third to increase the Lancers lead to 4-0.
Lakehead’s Andrew Wilkins walked in shorthanded at the 17:00 mark of the third tucking the puck past Van Buskirk, for the host team’s only goal of the game.
Van Buskirk was outstanding in net for Windsor making 37 saves to earn the win.
Source: Lancers Athletics
UQTR Patriotes (2) @ Carleton Ravens (5)
The Carleton University Ravens men’s hockey team stormed back from an embarrassing game one loss to UQTR with a 5-1 win at the Ice House on Saturday afternoon, sending the series to a decisive game three.
Defenceman Tim Billingsley (Ottawa) struck twice on the power play in the opening frame, while Matthew Dopud (Pointe-Claire, Que.) made 23 saves to get the win for Carleton, getting the Ravens back on track after an 8-1 loss in the series opener.
With Felix Lefrancois (Baie-Comeau, Que.) in the box for closing his hand on the puck, a Ravens power play that struggled throughout the regular season would propel Carleton to an early 1-0 lead on Billingsley’s first of the playoffs just 1:31 into the game.
As a penalty-filled opening frame continued, the Ravens would get another chance on the power play 10 minutes later and once again took advantage of Billingsley’s heavy shot, with the freshman giving Carleton a 2-0 lead.
Before the Patriotes could escape from a woeful first period, Ryan Berard (Niagara Falls, Ont.) gave Carleton a 3-0 edge, drawing assists from Brandon MacLean (Burlington, Ont.) and Christian Bourdeau-Mifflen (Ottawa) for his second goal of the playoffs.
After a nine-save effort for Dopud in the first period, the Ravens amped up their game defensively in the second period, holding UQTR’s explosive offence to just five shots on goal and making life easy for their second-year goaltender.
In the third period the offence picked up again for the Ravens when Andrew Glass (Wrentham, Mass.) centered for Berard who drove hard to the net and was rewarded with his second goal of the game.
Not long after, following a UQTR penalty and some nifty stick work by Jeff Hayes (Ottawa), Bourdeau-Mifflen joined the action on a jam play in front for his first goal of the series to make it 5-0.
With Dopud’s shutout bid still on the line, the Ravens couldn’t avoid penalty trouble and UQTR took advantage for its first goal of the game when Maxime Gravel (Chateau-Richer, Que.) tipped a rocket from the point by Pierre-Luc Lessard (Thetford-Mines, Que.) to make it 5-1.
First-year goaltender Guillaume Nadeau (St-Jean-Chrysostome, Que.) struggled in the loss, allowing five goals on just 28 shots.
Source: Ravens Athletics
Windsor Lancers (5) @ Lakehead Thunderwolves (2)
The Windsor Lancers Men's Hockey team continued their terrific playoff run with with a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory over the Lakehead Thunderwolves on Saturday night at Fort William Gardens.
The Lancers won both games in Thunder Bay to knock Lakehead out of the playoff and win the best of three game series two games to one.
Windsor got another terrific goaltending performance from Parker Van Buskirk who stopped 48 of 50 shots to lead the Lancers to victory.
Much like Friday’s game, Lakehead came out in the first period and controlled much of the play, but Van Buskirk was strong early on, making some huge saves to keep the Thunderwolves off the board.
Those saves proved to be huge for the Lancers as Spencer Pommels put one past Wolves goaltender Alex Dupuis after a bad giveaway in the Lakehead zone at 10:19 of the first.
Lakehead answered back while shorthanded at the 3:25 mark of the second period when Andrew Wilkins broke in and put a shot on Van Buskirk who made the initial save, but Wilkins backhanded the rebound over him, tying the game at 1-1.
Shortly after, Windsor regained the lead on a Brett Oliphant shot that took a funny bounce, with the puck hitting Dupuis on the shoulder before crossing the goal line to make it 2-1 for the Lancers.
The Thunderwolves put a lot of pressure on the Lancers for the remainder of the period, but Van Buskirk continued his outstanding performance to keep the Wolves at bay.
Early in the third period, Lakehead was able to tie the game at two at 7:09 when Trevor Gamache picked up a rebound on a shot from the point by Luke Maw.
The Lancers tried to regain the lead midway through the third but were denied by a cross bar and goal post on a pair of terrific scoring chances.
Lakehead tried to apply pressure on the Windsor goal late in the third, but couldn’t solve Van Buskirk, and the game was extended into overtime.
After numerous scoring chances and big saves by both goalies, the Lancers finally ended the game when Scott Todd blasted a high shot past Dupuis with only 27 seconds left in the first overtime period to send Windsor to the West Division Finals.
Head Coach Kevin Hamlin's squad now advances to the OUA West Finals and will face-off with the Western Mustangs next week in a best of three series.
Carleton Ravens (5) @ UQTR Patriotes (2)
The Carleton University Ravens men’s hockey team suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in double overtime to the UQTR Patriotes on Sunday, ending the Ravens’ season and propelling UQTR to the OUA East finals.
Pierre-Alexandre Joncas (Matane, Que.) scored his second goal of the game at 6:18 of the second overtime period to give the Patriotes a thrilling win at Le Colisee.
Guillaume Nadeau (St-Jean-Chrysostome, Que.) was spectacular in goal for the Patriotes, stopping 36 shots on goal through 76 minutes of action, while Matthew Dopud (Pointe-Claire, Que.) was also strong for Carleton with 42 saves in a losing effort.
After taking advantage of two first-period power play markers in a 5-1 win on Feb. 25, Carleton looked to stay hot with the extra man early in game three, but the Ravens failed to take advantage, generating little offence in the opening half of the frame.
The scoring opened late in the first period when Tyler Taylor (Kitchener, Ont.) took a goaltender interference penalty, giving UQTR an opportunity to amend its own slow start with a five-on-four advantage.
Maxime Robichaud (St-Georges-de-Champlain, Que.) took full advantage for his first goal of the playoffs, beating Dopud from the point on just his team’s second shot of the game to give the Patriotes a 1-0 edge through 20 minutes. Carleton outshot UQTR 8-4 in the first period, but failed to score on any of its three power play attempts.
In the second period the Ravens continued to battle offensively, firing shots at Nadeau from every direction, but the first-year goaltender kept Carleton off the scoreboard through 40 minutes.
With 20 minutes to go and the Ravens facing elimination, Carleton struggled to find offence out of the gate as UQTR tightened up defensively in front of Nadeau. After a crosschecking penalty for Michael Folkes (Burlington, Ont.) eight minutes into the period, the Patriotes would get an opportunity to score an insurance marker.
But the Ravens penalty kill had other plans, as Jeff Hayes (Ottawa) silenced the crowd with a shorthanded marker to tie the game at one goal apiece. During the regular season, the Ravens ranked third in the country and first in the OUA in shorthanded goals with 11, boasting one of the most dangerous penalty kill units in the CIS.
Carleton wasn’t quite finished yet, as minutes later captain Brandon MacLean (Burlington, Ont.) jumped in on the action with his third goal of the playoffs to give the Ravens their first lead of the game, making it 2-1.
The Patriotes responded with an offensive flurry, and Joncas beat Dopud to dazzle the UQTR crowd and tie the game at two. The Patriotes asserted their dominance offensively as the minutes ticked off the clock, testing Dopud with constant pressure, but the second-year goaltender came through in the clutch to send the game into overtime.
It was the second straight series for Carleton that would all come down to sudden death in game three, and after Joey Manley (Ottawa) played the role of overtime hero versus Toronto in round one, the Ravens couldn’t get the offence going in this one.
After the first overtime solved nothing, Joncas picked up right where he left off in regulation with his second goal of the game on an unassisted marker just 6:18 into double overtime, giving the Patriotes the thrilling overtime win, and sending the Ravens back to Ottawa heartbroken.
The loss marks the second straight season Carleton has been bounced by the Patriotes in a winner-take-all game three of the OUA East semi-finals.
Source: Ravens Athletics
OUA SCHEDULE & RESULTS
February 24, 2012
McGill, 5 @ Ottawa, 3 – Game 2
Western, 3 @ Brock, 2 – Game 2
Windsor, 4 @ Lakehead, 1 – Game 2
February 25, 2012
UQTR, 1 @ Carleton, 5 – Game 2
Windsor, 3 @ Lakehead, 2 (OT) – Game 3
February 26, 2012
Carleton, 2 @ UQTR, 3 (2OT) – Game 3
Stay tuned for scheduling for the OUA Semifinals.
