AROUND OUA: Lions rally from three goals down to defeat Golden Hawks

SCOREBOARD

Laurier 3 @ York 4

Nipissing 3 @ UOIT 4

Laurentian 3 @ RMC 1

Windsor 6 @ Lakehead 3

Carleton 2 @ Concordia 3

Brock 2 @ Guelph 7

Lions rally from three goals down to defeat Golden Hawks

The York University Lions men's hockey team rallied from a three-goal deficit to defeat the Laurier Golden Hawks by a score of 4-3 on Saturday night (Oct. 15) at Canlan Ice Sports.
 
The result avenged a 4-3 loss to the Golden Hawks one week ago in Waterloo, Ont.
 
The first period was all the Golden Hawks as Danny Hanlon scored twice to give Laurier a 2-0 lead entering the second period.
 
The beginning of the second period was opened up with a goal from Laurier's Kyle Morrison just one minute in. With the Lions now down 3-0 at the start of the period it was time for the rally to begin, and they did so 55 seconds later when Trevor Petersen (Thornhill, Ont.) capitalized off of the power play with help from the crisp passes of Derek Sheppard (Ajax, Ont.) and Kyle Campbell (Halifax).
 
With the fire being ignited, Greg Milner (Watford, Ont.) added to the flame when he scored at 6:09 to narrow the deficit to one. Sheppard and Petersen assisted the goal.
 
The scoring would not stop there as Petersen scored for a second time, this time off of the assist from Sheppard and Daniel Nikandrov (Richmond Hill, Ont.). With the game now tied at 3-3 the Lions would need one final push to break the tie and complete their astounding comeback, and Sheppard took full advantage on a power play at the end of the second period to break the tie. He found the back of the net with 11 seconds remaining in the frame to finish an impressive stat line that would include three assists.
 
Petersen and Milner were also awarded assists on Sheppard's goal, and Petersen finished the night with four points as well.
 
The third period would be a shut out for both teams, as the defensive efforts of the Lions would help them skate to victory.
 
After the slow start, rookie goaltender Mack Shields (Saskatoon) settled down and went on to make 24 saves in the contest for his second straight win.
 
After scoring four unanswered goals, the Lions completed the comeback and improved their record to 2-2 on the season. Their next opponent will be the Guelph Gryphons when they face off in Guelph, Ont., on Thursday (Oct. 20). The Lions will return home to Canlan Ice Sports when they take on the Ryerson Rams next Saturday (Oct. 22).

Source: York Lions

No. 9 ranked Ridgebacks win fourth straight

OSHAWA, Ont. – The nationally ranked UOIT men's hockey team have started the regular season 4-0, but didn't do it the easy way as it took a Connor Jarvis (Port Union, Ont.) double-overtime goal to lift the Ridgebacks past the Nipissing Lakers 4-3 on Saturday.
 
Jarvis' goal came 1:11 into the second overtime period, from Cameron Yuill (Wellington, Ont.) and Jason Shaw (Ameliasburg, Ont.), on an off-angle shot that surprised Lakers goalie Jeremy Pominville.
 
The goal was Jarvis' second of the game and third in four games this season for UOIT.
 
Although the Ridgebacks are happy to start the season undefeated in conference play, heading into the third period on Saturday it looked as though they were rolling to a shutout victory.
 
Jarvis had opened the scoring 11:44 into the first period, followed by Josh Carrick (Stouffville, Ont.) making it 2-0 just 2:52 into the second.
 
Danny Elser (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.), who was named OUA athlete of the week, pushed his goal-scoring streak to four games with his fifth of the season at the 12:39 mark of the second period.
 
At the end of the second UOIT held a 3-0 lead and was outshooting Nipissing 24-14.
 
Early in the third the Lakers took advantage of a pair of Ridgeback penalties, as Erik Robichaud was the first to beat Tyson Teichmann (Belleville, Ont.) 3:26 into the period.
 
Just under four minutes later Deverick Ottereyes capitalized on another Lakers power play to cut the lead to one.
 
UOIT's Anthony Latina (Scarborough, Ont.) took a five-minute penalty for checking from behind midway through the period, but the Ridgebacks killed off the Lakers power play and appeared to use that as positive momentum to close out the period.
 
Again the Lakers showed they weren't going to stop pushing for the equalizer as Colin Campbell beat Teichmann to tie the game 3-3 on a broken play with 4:31 to go in regulation, where the score stayed until Jarvis' overtime tally.
 
The 26-save performance by Teichmann earned him his second win of the OUA season, while Pominville made 37 saves in the Nipissing loss.
 
UOIT continues their homestand this Wednesday night when they host the RMC Paladins at the Campus Ice Centre. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Source: UOIT Ridgebacks

Voyaguers get into the win column

On Saturday night, the Laurentian men's hockey team earned their first win of the season with a 3-1 win at RMC.

The Voyageurs wasted little time opening the scoring when Nick Esposto scored at 4:29 of the first period, with assists going to Derek Varrin and Nicolas Thommen. Esposto's goal would be the only goal of the period and the first frame would end with the Voyageurs outshooting RMC 15 to 14.

The second period was a similar story to that of the first, as the Voyageurs scored the only goal of the period. Richard Therrien, at 9:59, beat RMC goalie Matthew Murphy and Derek Varrin picked up his second assist of the night.

The third period saw an increase in action as RMC finally got on the board at 6:09 when Michie Mathew beat Charlie Millen to bring the Paladins within one.  With less than a minute to play, however, Brent Pedersen sealed the victory for the Voyageurs with an empty net goal at 19:25 of the third period.

With the victory, the Voyageurs came away from the weekend with three of four possible points. The Voyageurs are back in action on Friday, when they host the Queen's Gaels at Countryside Arena at 7:35pm.

Source: Laurentian Voyageurs

Thunderwolves fall to Lancers

Windsor's Todd Ratchford got the Lancers on the board 5:44 into the first, but Lakehead's Kelin Ainsworth rifled the puck into the net on a nice set-up from Dylan Butler and Cody Alcock with the Wolves on the power play to even the score late in the period.

Windsor broke the game open with three goals in less than two minutes midway through the second.

Brennan Feasey scored on a one-timer on a Windsor power play at 9:31, and then Tyson Ness beat Wolves' goalie Devin Green just under a minute later.

Feasey notched another power play marker at 11:24 with a hard shot that eluded Green low on the stick side.

Lakehead narrowed the gap to 4-2 at 16:10 when Cody Alcock fired the disc past Lancers' netminder Kris Joyce while the Wolves held the man-advantage, with Brennen Dubchak and Sam Schutt getting the assists.

Feasey completed his hat-trick 1:06 into the third period with a blast from the high slot to put Windsor up by three, but Carson Dubchak replied for Lakehead at 7:32 on a goal assisted by Schutt and Evan Mignault.

Lakehead pulled Green for an extra attacker late in the game, but Ratchford got his second goal of the game with an empty-netter with 1:13 remaining to seal the deal for the Lancers.

The Wolves went 2-for-8 on the power play, while Windsor was 2-for-4.

Shots on goal for the game were 30-19 in favor of the Thunderwolves.

The Molson three stars of the game were:

1. Brennan Feasey, Windsor
2. Cody Alcock, Lakehead
3. Todd Ratchford, Windsor

The loss evens Lakehead's OUA record to 1-1. 

The Wolves will head out on a three-game road trip beginning next Thursday at Ryerson, followed by a pair of games at Toronto on Friday and Saturday.

Source: Lakehead Thunderwoles

Penalty filled affair plagues Ravens in loss to Stingers

MONTREAL, QC — A stellar outing from freshman goalie Francois Brassard (Gatineau, QC) wasn't enough for the Ravens on Saturday night as they were handed a 3-2 loss from the Concordia Stingers at Ed Meagher Arena.

BOX SCORE

A total of 31 penalty minutes stinted the Ravens' offensive presence as the game unfolded. Already facing a fortified Stingers' defence that limited their scoring chances, the Ravens simply spent too much time on the penalty kill.

"In general, our discipline was an issue," says Ravens head coach Marty Johnston. "When you're taking penalties in the offensive zone that hurts your chances and we need to clean that up."

There was no shortage of scoring chances in an opening period that saw the Ravens outshoot the Stingers 12-11. Throughout the early minutes, the Ravens tested Stinger's freshman goalie Phillippe Cadorette with multiple high-slot chances that narrowly missed the target. But the more shots they faced, the better the Stingers defence played.

Midway through the period, a Stingers break saw Antoine Masson draw in the Ravens' defence then find an open Scott Oke, whose in-tight backhand beat Brassard for the game's first goal.

Two minutes later, a pair of Ravens penalties offered the Stingers a chance to stretch their lead to two. Controlling the point for the Stingers, freshman forward Anthony De Luca put his lethal shot on full display. After pelting the right-side post with a point-shot blast, De Luca gathered the puck to let go the exact same shot; this time, finding the back of the net.

With a 2-0 score for the Stingers, De Luca continued to show off his skillset. With less than three minutes in the period, De Luca found open ice and positioned himself for a heavy one-timer, but was robbed by fellow CIS-rookie Brassard. With the fans at the Ed Meagher Arena out of their seats ready to celebrate another goal, a sprawled-out Brassard denied DeLuca a second goal.

"I thought he was outstanding," says Johnston. "He's definitely taken a step forward in the last couple weeks and we're happy with how's he's played. He stood tall and we're going to need that moving forward."

In the second frame, Brassard continued to make his case for the starting-goalie spot. Nearly every few minutes, the Gatineau-native would turn away a Stingers' scoring chance with a highlight-reel save.

Early in the period, the calm-cool-and-collected Brassard traveled post-to-post to get his left pad out on the one-timed slap shot of Charles-Eric Legare. Shortly after, as the Ravens and Stingers entered a back-and-forth onslaught, Brassard turned away breakaway chances from William Couture and Dominic Beauchemin, as well as an in-tight backhand from Olivier Hinse, the Stinger's leading scorer in 2015-16.

Building off the momentum created by their young goaltender, the Ravens cut the Stingers' lead in half. A pinching David Weckworth (Kanata, ON) carried the puck deep into the Stingers' zone where he found Corey Durocher (Ottawa, ON) in front of the net. Durocher then buried his third goal of the season and made it a 2-1 game.

The Stingers would, however, respond to the Ravens' pursuant offence by locking down their zone and tallying their third goal of the night. Behind the Ravens' net, an isolated Hinse put nearly every skater on spin cycle as he faked a right-side wrap-around, cut on a dime, and beat Brassard inside his left post.

Down 3-1 nearing the end of the second period, the Ravens needed a spark from its offence, and, in nothing short of a jaw-dropping pass, Brassard provided it. As he circled his net to retrieve a loose puck, Brassard rifled a pass to the far blueline where he found a streaking Alexandre Boivin (Ottawa, ON) for a breakaway goal.

As the game continued, the 3-2 Stingers' lead that ended in the second period wouldn't be touched. Adding up to a total of ten on the night, four third-period penalties by the Ravens eliminated far too much time on the clock. While their penalty kill denied the Stingers on nine of ten chances, too much of the period was spent in their own zone.

Now in possession of a 2-2 record, the Ravens head into a short week in preparation for their Wednesday night matchup against Ottawa in the Colonel By Classic.

"Ottawa had a really good night on the power play last night," says Johnston, referencing the Gee-Gees' four-for-five power play against RMC on Friday. "We'll need to make sure we don't give them too many opportunities to capitalize on."

Source: Carleton Ravens

Gryphons score seven goals in big win over Badgers

GUELPH, ON – First it was the defence that stood tall for the Guelph Gryphons men's hockey team on Saturday night against the Brock Badgers.
 
Then the offence came to play.
 
Robert Lepine and Marc Stevens scored 32 seconds apart in the last minute of the first period to break open a close game and propel the Gryphs past the Badgers 7-2 in OUA action at the Gryphon Centre.
 
The win put the Gryphs back on the winning path after suffering their first loss of the season one night earlier in Waterloo against the Laurier Golden Hawks.
 
"It was absolutely critical that we get back on track after last night," head coach Shawn Camp said after Saturday's win. "We just felt as a team that we didn't move our feet like we should last night, and as a result Laurier took the game to us. We were chasing the game all night.
 
"Tonight we came out with a more determined effort. We got off to a great start and that seemed to carry us through."
 
Marc Stevens opened the scoring at 5:45, and the Gryphs registered the first 11 shots of the game. Brock didn't record a shot until there were about six minutes left in the first period.
 
But it wasn't until after Lepine and Stevens scored at 19:18 and 19:50 that the home team felt it could breathe a little bit.
 
"It gave us some separation; until then, it was still very tight, and it could go either way. That was a big game-changer for us," Camp said. "Any time you can score late in the period like that, it gives you great momentum carrying over to the next period."
 
Brock got on the board early in the second period on a power-play goal by Sammy Banga, but Guelph's Cody Thompson quickly responded with a man-advantage marker of his own to restore the three-goal margin. Then Michael Stevens and Wyatt Trainer scored two more quick goals late in the period, and the Gryphs took a 6-1 lead into the dressing room.
 
Reilly O'Connor of the Gryphs and Matt MacLeod of the Badgers traded goals in the third period to round out the scoring. Tryg Strand, Scott Simmonds, Seth Swenson and Manny Gialedakis each chipped in with two assists for Guelph.
 
"It was a great rebound game by us, and it was nice to see everyone producing," said Marc Stevens, an OUA rookie from Turkey Point, ON who scored his first two goals as a Gryphon. He spent the past four seasons with the Guelph Storm of the OHL, and now joins his older brother Michael on the Gryphons.
 
"It was nice to get on the score sheet for sure, but most importantly it was nice to get the win coming off a loss last night. It shows the type of character we have on our team. After a rough game yesterday, we showed how quickly we can rebound, and how good we compete when we put our minds to it."
 
Keith Hamilton got the win in the Guelph nets, stopping 18 of 19 shots. Alex Brooks-Potts made 29 saves in a losing cause for Brock.
 
The Gryphs are now 3-1 in the OUA West Division, while the Badgers drop to 1-3. Next action for Guelph is Thursday, October 20 when York visits the Gryphon Centre.

Source: Guelph Gryphons