The Windsor Lancer men's hockey team were back in action again this weekend hosting the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks on Friday night and the Concordia Stingers on Saturday afternoon at the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex.
The Lancers dropped a 3-2 contest to the Ridgebacks on Friday while on Saturday the Lancers were able to battle back and defeat the Stingers 5-4 in overtime.
FRIDAY STATS
Brady Hinz and
Jake Durham each had a power play goal for the blue and gold.
David Jesus,
Hunter Holmes,
Keegan McMullen, and
Mason Kohn each picked up an assist on the pair of Lancer power play goals.
Nathan Torchia turned aside 11 shots while occupying the Lancer net in the loss.
HOW IT HAPPENED ON FRIDAY
The opening twenty minutes of the game went scoreless despite the Lancers having three power play opportunities which included a two-man advantage at one point being granted a 5-on-3 chance courtesy of the Ridgebacks undisciplined play at that time late in the first. However, both teams escaped the first period unscathed knotted up at 0-0.
The goose eggs on the scoreboard were broken in the second period when Ontario Tech struck first with Cullen McLean's first power play goal of the night scoring for the Ridgebacks at 1:53 of the second period to go up 1-0.
The Lancers would respond a few minutes later at 4:17 when Hinz got the equalizer for the Lancers while on the power play to tie the game up at 1-1.
The Ridgebacks would find another power play opportunity to light the lamp on later in the period when McLean notched his second of the game at 11:14 of the second frame to make it a 2-1 game.
Ontario Tech would add an additional marker before the second period expired roughly two minutes later at 13:25 when Antoine Desrochers pounced on a juicy rebound that was left on the doorstep of Torchia's crease to make it a two-goal lead and 3-1 game.
In the third period, Durham would score on another Lancer power play to trim the Ontario Tech lead down to 3-2 and give the Lancers some hope late in the third.
Penalty trouble for the Lancers cost them down the stretch as the officials filled up the sin bin with Lancer sweaters as tensions started to rise between both sides. Cooler heads prevailed in this one as the Ridgebacks would hold on to claim the 3-2 victory in Windsor serving the Lancers their fifth loss on the campaign.
SATURDAY STATS
Brady Hinz had two goals for the blue and gold while
Nic Pavia and
Matt McNamara also scored in regulation play.
Meanwhile,
Aaron Shaw netted the overtime winner to seal the deal and earn the Lancers the victory to put them back in the win column snapping a four-game losing skid.
Nathan Torchia made 15 saves in the overtime win over Concordia.
HOW IT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY
The Stingers opened the scoring in this contest at 3:10 of the first period when Isiah Campbell found his first goal of the night to put the visitors from Quebec up 1-0.
A few minutes later, Samuel Desgroseilliers became the second Concordia goal scorer finding a way to beat Torchia and put the Montreal-based Stingers up by a pair to close out the first period ahead 2-0.
In the second period, Hinz would find his first goal of the night and second on the weekend to give the Lancers some life with his marker at 2:54 into period two from
Dylan Schives and Shaw making it a 2-1 game.
The Lancer one-goal deficit would remain intact until 9:35 of the second frame when Pavia found space to score into the Concordia net past the Stingers netminder Jordan Naylor to make it a 2-2 hockey game.
Jacob Boucher and
Grant Spence would each draw an assist on Pavia's goal which rounded out the second period with a 2-2 tie.
Third period action saw another closely contested battle filled with no shortage of action playing out in the interprovincial match up of both squads. At 12:05 of the third period the Lancers would strike on the power play with McNamara giving the Lancers their first lead of the game up 3-2 from Durham and
Mason Kohn's assists on the go-ahead goal for Windsor.
McNamara would then sustain a high stick against him not too long after his go-ahead goal which gave the Lancers some more time on the power play for a 4-minute double minor penalty assessed against the Stingers.
However, the Stingers would remain buzzing in the Windsor zone while shorthanded as they found a way to score an unassisted shorthanded marker at 16:56 when Campbell notched in his second of the game past Torchia to make it a 3-3 hockey game.
The Stingers continued to sting the Lancers during a short late period stretch when Nicholas Girourd scored at 17:48 with his go-ahead goal coming less than minute after Campbell's second of the night to restore Concordia's one goal lead at 4-3.
With regulation time winding down, a desperate effort by the blue and gold prevailed when Hinz was able to solve Naylor for his second goal of the game courtesy of Durham and
David Jesus' assists at 19:38 of the third period stalemating the match at 4-4 and triggering overtime with the third period quickly expiring 22 seconds later.
In overtime Shaw became the hero of the contest at 2:09 scoring his game winning goal and snapping the Lancers losing streak with a 5-4 overtime comeback victory on home ice over the Stingers to improve to 10-5 on the campaign to date.
UP NEXT
The Lancers will be back in action again next weekend in a home-and-home series versus the Western Mustangs with the blue and gold hosting the purple and white on Friday November 17th at 7:30pm from the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex before the showdown shifts to London for an immediate rematch battle of the 401 at Western on Saturday afternoon at 3:00pm.
Tickets will be available for the Friday night matinee at the gate of the CPRC on gameday or available for purchase in advance here at golancers.ca/tickets. For fans that cannot make it to the rink rest assured knowing that all of next weekend's action will be live streamed on OUA.tv and covered on all official Lancer social media platforms including X (formerly Twitter) all season long.
