Hockey: Top 10 tracker; Sweet 16 for 'Stangs; Acadia splits cliffhangers

Evan, David and Luke should have more to say later on in the weekend; a quick look at how it unfolded Friday night:
  1. UNB Varsity Reds (27-0, 17-0-0 AUS) — Won 5-3 at UPEI on Saturday; edged St. Thomas 4-3 on Friday to stay unbeaten.

  2. Alberta Golden Bears (21-3, 16-1-1 CW) — Swept Calgary in a home-and-home, 6-3 and 4-3 in overtime.

  3. Western Mustangs (18-5, 16-2-0 OUA-W) — Might siphon off some No. 2 votes from the Golden Bears after winning a two-game series from Lakehead, 7-2 and 8-3 and making it 16 league wins in a row. In the second game, it was 6-0 before the five-minute mark of the second period.

    Lakehead, who knows, might have been looking for an excuse to crash. They took four penalties in a row in the first period on Saturday (the first was one you hate, an interference penalty that wiped out a PP) and Western scored three power-play goals.

  4. Acadia Axemen (15-8, 12-3-1 AUS) — Split a pair of OT games where the winning team came from two goals down. Saturday, St. FX's Phil Mangan, a native of Gananoque, scored a natural hat trick to bring the X-Men back for a 3-2 win.

    Friday, Acadia beat Saint Mary's 5-4. Jonathan Laberge scored the winner 7:59 into the sudden-victory session; how about a tip of the contrarian's cap to the AUS for playing a 10-minute OT instead of five minutes like in every other puck precinct?

  5. McGill Redmen (19-7-1, 14-2-0 OUA-E) — Won 3-2 at RMC and 3-1 at home over Ottawa. The Paladins scored twice in the final four minutes to make it close.

  6. UQTR Patriotes (16-5, 14-2-1 OUA-E) — Idle; at McGill on Jan. 15.

  7. Manitoba Bisons (17-7, 10-4-2 CW) — Split at Lethbridge (1-0 win, 6-4 loss). Fell apart in the back half of the second period on Saturday when the Pronghorns pumped in four goals in eight minutes, including a pair from former Guelph Storm Ryan Pottruff.

  8. Saint Mary's Huskies (15-8, 10-3-3 AUS) — Beat Dalhousie 8-3 after the 5-4 OT loss to Acadia.

  9. Laurier Golden Hawks (16-8, 13-4-2 OUA-W) — Beat Brock 4-2 on Friday after 5-4 overtime loss to Waterloo on Thursday.

  10. Lakehead Thunderwolves (15-9, 11-5-2 OUA-W) — Lost 7-2 and 8-3 at Western, ouch.
Outside the Top 10 notables:
  • Joe Rand, who was limited to four games in the first half, had three goals in two games as U of T won big on the road (7-3 at Queen's, 6-4 at Nipissing). That's a pretty big strike in the race for fourth in the OUA East. U of T is two points back of Queen's with a game in hand.

  • Another first for Nipissing: Andrew Marcoux scored the first Lakers hat trick in Friday's 6-3 win at RMC.
Next PostNewer Post Previous PostOlder Post Home

9 comments:

  1. Lakehead gets outscored by Western 15-5 this weekend. Who saw that coming???

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daniel Da Silva - Gazette1/09/2010 11:40 pm

    Lakehead really was embarrassed this weekend. I was at the game tonight, and the as ridiculous as this will sound, it wasn't as close as the 8-3 score would suggest. Lakehead looked AWFUL. Pretty sure Lakehead will drop waaaaay out of the top 10

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is it true that the game between Lakehead & Western drew 2347 in London?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Daniel Da Silva1/10/2010 11:50 am

    The second game of the weekend drew 2347. The rink was pretty packed.

    But it was kind of a special event game, so it was heavily promoted, unlike other hockey games. That being said, it was the highest total I've seen at a Western hockey game since last year's Queen's Cup.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I for one am shocked at how easily Western handled Lakehead. I figured with the addition of Lakehead's new recruits over the Christmas break, this series would have been a split or maybe even a sweep for Lakehead...especially after Western got bounced at Brock's holiday tournament.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I cannot for the life of me figure out why Lakehead seems to struggle as much as they have been. I have heard mention of goaltending beind poor, but still on paper, with their lineup, they should be destroying almost every team in the OUA. They are one of the only teams in the entire CIS able to field an entire forward set of Major Junior players (save for Anilane, who is not your typical non former MJ player, coming from Sweden and almost playing at the WJC), and several such as McDonald, Dias, Caria, Speer etc who were all over 60 point guys in their junior days. They can field literally 3 stacked lines, and 4 very good lines. They also have a goalie who theoretically should be able to provide them with solid goaltending, and a solid defence core. I just don't get it. I will see Lakehead play in person later this month, and look forward to seeing them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm wondering if Lakehead's woes and inconsistency has anything to do with the coaching situation.

    A rookie head-coach, not far removed from his playing days, and nary a year or two older than his players, does seem like a recipe for disaster.

    Then again, Lakehead has not benefitted from the goaltending that they've been accustomed too over the years in Whitley and McCune

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oops! Could one of the admins please move my post @Anonymous 12:53, to the Mike Danton thread, sorry about the mess up!

    ReplyDelete