Men's hockey Top 10: Long night at the Morrison Hotel for No. 2 Patriotes

The 2-hole is becoming the Bermuda Triangle. Trois-Rivieres was upset 2-1 in overtime Friday by Queen's, whom it beat by six goals at its own barn last week. Rob Pettapiece's RPI is in brackets:
  1. Alberta (3) – Forward Jesse Gimblett scored the shootout winner Saturday to top off a two-game sweep at UBC, 6-2 and 2-1.

    The Golden Bears play over the holidays in the SAIT tournament (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) on Jan. 2-3.
  2. UQTR (2) – Linemates Jonathan Boutin and Alexandre Demers each had three-point days Saturday in a 6-3 road win at RMC that salvaged a weekend split. The bottom line is Trois-Rivieres has a great goal differential and has taken 31 of a possible 34 points; they're pretty solid in the No. 2 spot.

    It was Brady Morrison 2, Trois-Rivieres 1 on Friday. The Queen's goalie made 48 saves to help the Gaels pull out two unexpected points.
  3. Saskatchewan (10) – The Huskies (11-4-1) finished their first-half schedule last weekend; they'll be at Lakehead's tournament the week after Christmas.
  4. Moncton (7) – The Aigles Bleus won just one of their final five games of the first half after Friday's 3-1 loss to UNB, which just speaks to the toughness of the Atlantic conference. Remi Doucet had a game-high eight shots on goal Friday and didn't score, ouch.
  5. UNB (6) – This week could not have worked out any better for the V-Reds. Their two wins and a Saint Mary's loss gave them the best record in the Atlantic (9-2-2, actually tied for first but with a game in hand over Moncton and two over SMU).

    Ben Macfarlane, the St. Thomas goalie, stopped 42-of-44 UNB shots in that 3-2 Varsity Reds win on Saturday. He made 10 saves alone in overtime to get his team a point.

    New Brunswick will play defending NCAA champion Boston College Jan. 2-3 in Frederiction.
  6. Laurier (1) – Crafty centre Mark Voakes (anyone who's got six goals and 22 assists counts as crafty) had a four-point night Saturday to help the Golden Hawks beat Ontario Tech 6-3. Laurier has scored 42 goals over its last eight games, five per night; usually you only see that from Trois-Rivieres in the OUA.

    Laurier spotted York the first two goals Thursday, but Jean-Michael Rizk got a big goal late in the first and the Golden Hawks pumped in five in the second stanza on the way to a 7-3 win.
  7. Saint Mary's (5) – One assumes the Huskies were just flat in Saturday's 6-1 loss at St. FX, which beat a ranked team for the second straight week. The X-Men scored goals 1:22 apart early on. Saint Mary's had eight minutes of power-play time in the second, and went from being down 2-0 to down 5-0. Hey, it happens.

    Phil Mangan (gotta pump any Kingston-area player who never got a fair shake from the Frontenacs) scored for St. FX in the game.

    Saint Mary's hammered UPEI 7-2 on Thursday.
  8. Lakehead (4) – Swept Guelph, 6-4, 6-3, tallying seven power-plays goals (and a big short-hander from Kris Hogg in the first game.
  9. UPEI (NR) – This is something a ranked team wouldn't do -- lose by five goals at home to Saint Mary's. SMU has outscored the Panthers 14-4 in their three meetings. That's not good.

    UPEI, which now has a negative goal differential, is done conference-wise until Jan. 9.
  10. Acadia (NR) – Philippe Bertrand's second of the night, with 4:56 left, was the decider in the Axemen's 6-5 win over Dalhousie to close out their first-half schedule.
For the top 10 RPI teams:
  • Waterloo (8th RPI) hosts York on Sunday with a chance to give the OUA Far West three teams with double-digit wins.
  • Windsor (9th RPI) ended up splitting with Brock. The second game was called with 15 minutes left when Badgers goalie Kurt Jory's neck was cut by a skate. Jory, a rookie from Brandon, Man., will apparently be OK, but it was serious enough to warrant Brock coach Kevin Hamlin staying with him at the hospital.

    (Thanks to Big Man on Campus, Greg Layson, for the link.)
  • McGill started slowly, but after beating Ryerson 9-2 on Saturday to complete a four-point weekend in Toronto, they're 7-2-1 in their last 10. You knew the Redmen wouldn't struggle forever. It's hard to come up with 10 teams who are playing better than they have over the past 2-3 weeks.
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3 comments:

  1. CiTR-FM in Vancouver is broadcasting Saturday's hockey game between UBC and Alberta.

    Fans can listen to the game, starting at 7:30 pm Pacific at www.citr.ca

    Those in the Vancouver area can listen at 101.9 FM.

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  2. As per a release, Jory has "come through the surgery with no complications." The words "full recovery" are good to hear, too.

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  3. Thankfully, such injuries are rare, but is their anything more frightening than to see a player's neck artery sliced open by a skate blade?
    I recall the Clint Malarchuk incident so vividly, remembering how the crowd behind his net recoiled in horror at the sight.
    And then, the cameras sensibly turned away from the ice.
    Although he recovered from the accident physically, the emotional scars from that life and death situation forced Malarchuk from the game soon afterward.
    I just hope this young player will heal completely so that he can resume playing again.
    Thank God he's OK.

    ReplyDelete