Hockey woes
By Ryan Rogers
Sports Editor
October 31, 2007
The Lancers Men’s Hockey program is off to one of their worst starts in recent history after losing their first five games straight. Last weekend the men’s team was defeated 7-2 by the Western Mustangs in a game that started off evenly, and then quickly fell out of reach.
The game started evenly as the Mustangs opened the scoring with Kevin Richardson in the third minute of play. But the Lancers responded quickly a moment later with a power play goal just six seconds into the penalty, by Jon Ryan, assisted by captain Chad Snihur and Jon Romic. Romic won the face off directly back to Snihur who set up Ryan for the one-timer that blasted directly past Western’s goalie, Brad Topping.
The Mustang’s Richardson scored for a second time to start off the second period, but the Lancers kept pace and tied it. The scoring chance was again made possible by the defense, when Snihur kept the puck in the zone, and saucered it over to Ryan, who blasted it towards the net from the left point. Alex White was standing off to the side of the net, and made a perfect redirection between Western’s goalie’s legs.
Western’s size and speed continued to cause turnovers in the Lancers’ zone, and penalties resulting in a third goal in the second period. Down by only one goal, Watt made an excellent save on a clear breakaway with six minutes remaining in the period, keeping his team close. Western’s fourth goal of the game came with an outstanding, outside-to-inside deke from Luc Martin who then roofed his shot high to the glove side on Watt with under a minute to go to close out the second frame.
The first ten minutes of the third period were the best the Lancers played all night, fighting for pucks, maintaining offensive pressure and control over the Mustangs, but that was deflated by a ‘too many men on the ice’ penalty at 8:55 in the third which resulted in a goal just five seconds after the penalty had been killed.
At that point the Lancers lost any momentum they had going into the period, and the Mustangs took advantage of Windsor’s disappointment to pour the pressure on some more taking two quick goals late in the third.
After playing competitively through the first period and closely most of the way through the second, the Lancers began to fall victim to fatigue as they were playing their second game in as many nights.
Head coach Pete Belliveau said, “I thought we competed well for two periods. In the third we ran out of gas, and were just running around.” He continued, “We’re playing with three lines as opposed to four and we played two games in 24 hours, so we’re pretty tired in that last period, I thought we ran out of gas.”
As for Watt, he was pulled from the net because the coach felt he needed a break. “He had enough, played last night, too. It was time to give him a rest,” said Belliveau. “He played well, too,” he added.
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