The Windsor Lancers men's hockey team lost a tough one on a cold Friday night in Oshawa. The Lancers fell 6-3 to the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks, moving the Lancers to 7-2 on the year while the Ridgebacks improve to 5-6.
GAME STATS
Lancer first-year goaltender
Tyler Johnson appeared in his first OUA start and made 35 saves on 40 shots in the loss.
Sean Olson (1G),
Anthony Salinitri (1G), and
Brady Pataki (1G) all scored for the blue and gold.
GAME FLOW
Ontario Tech came out strong in the first period, firing 17 shots at the Lancer goal. Jake Bricknell found a way to get one by Johnson at 8:57 mark to give the Ridgebacks a 1-0 lead early in the first.
The Ridgebacks continued to build off their dominant play from the first by notching three more goals in the back of the Lancer net in the second period. Jordan Ross (4:33) and Matthieu Gomercic (9:28) found their way on the scoresheet while Bricknell potted his second goal of the night at the 12:29 mark in the second.
In the third period, both teams came out hot putting pressure on one another. As the intensity ramped up throughout the period, tempers started to flair on both sides towards the midway point of the third period. After a bit of a lengthy delay where penalties were assessed to both sides, Gomercic sniped in his second goal of the night on a spin-around wrister putting it past Johnson for a 5-0 lead.
In quick succession, the Lancers found their way onto the scoreboard for the first time in the game as Olson scored at 11:53 in the third. The Lancers kept applying pressure on the Ridgebacks as Salinitri got on the board at 17:15 on a power play marker. A couple minutes later both teams exchanged goals as JC Thivierge sealed the deal on a shorthanded empty net goal for the Ridgebacks at 19:40 in the third. Nine seconds later the Lancers responded with a last-minute goal put away by Pataki who trimmed the Ridgebacks lead to 3 on another Lancer power play goal.
Despite the hard-fought effort put forth down the stretch, the Lancers ran out of time on the clock. The Ridgebacks outshot the Lancers 41 to 38 helping them snap a two-game losing streak heading into tonight's contest.
UP NEXT
The Lancers will remain in Oshawa overnight to prepare to face the Ridgebacks again in the second game of a double-header tomorrow afternoon. The puck drop for the rematch will be at 3:30PM tomorrow from the Campus Ice Centre and the action can be caught live on www.OUA.tv.
