Brock’s men’s hockey team headed up to Montreal this past weekend to play in two matches in a Quebec road trip.
On Oct. 27th, the Badgers took on the McGill Redbirds. While Brock has been dominating the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) West Division, McGill has merely been near the bottom of the East’s standings.
Nevertheless, the Redbirds got out to a hot start, securing the first goal of the game six minutes in.
The Badgers had a chance to respond soon after with a powerplay and Zachary Taylor made no mistake, ripping a shot top-corner and evening the score to 1-1.
The tie game was short-lived, however.
McGill snuck another one past the Badgers in the final minute of the first, putting them ahead 2-1.
That 2-1 score stuck for most of the second period as both sides bogged down with penalties. It wouldn’t be until just over three minutes remaining in the period that McGill found the fourth goal of the night, and the last one at even strength.
Brock couldn’t solve Redbird netminder Alexis Shank, who kept the game out of reach. Brock failed to score a second goal while McGill added an empty-netter to punctuate a 4-1 victory.
The Badgers were back in action the following afternoon, this time against a much more formidable opponent: the also 6-1 Concordia Stingers, who lead the Eastern Division.
The game remained scoreless between two clearly well-matched team for much of the first period. A powerplay opportunity for the Stingers gave them the first score of the game on a broken play in front of the Badgers crease.
Concordia left the period leading 1-0.
Brock came out burning to close that gap and did so just under a minute and a half into the second. Matt Duarte, finding himself with tons of space in front of the Concordia goal off a feed from Ethan Sims, buried his first career OUA goal.
The Badgers got a big break later that period when, after a Brock skater fell into the Concordia goalie, Jordan Stock’s shot slipped through, giving Brock the lead late in the second. The goal stood despite the goalie’s protests over the play.
The Badgers looked very undisciplined in the third, handing out four penalties. Brock’s team suffered as a result, losing their advantage in the last moments of the penalty kill. After a scuffle in front of goalie Connor Ungar, Concordia’s Charles-Antoine Paiement scored his second of the game exactly like the first, backhanding the puck into a wide-open cage.
The match would require overtime to get a final result, but Brock would make short work of that.
Tyler Burnie and Jacob Roach worked themselves into a 2-on-1 only 30 seconds into the extra frame. Burnie feathered a pass over to Roach, who deftly flicked it over the Stinger goalie, winning the game 4-3.
The overtime thriller was Brock’s seventh win of the season, elevating them over Concordia for sole possession of first place in the OUA.
The Badgers return home for another weekend double-header, playing Windsor on Nov. 3rd and Ontario Tech on the 4th. For more information, please go to gobadgers.ca.
