Sunday, February 12 2012
Men’s Hockey (14-13-1 OUA)
Hosted UQTR (19-7-2 OUA) on Saturday, February 11, 7:00 p.m. at the uOttawa Minto Sports Complex
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1 |
2 |
3 |
Final |
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Gee-Gees |
2 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
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UQTR |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
Gee-Gees goal scorers – Carnevale (Forster) 10:03 1st period; Methot 18:15 1st period; Voyer (Leduc) 4:17 2nd period;
UQTR goal scorers- Breton (Petit, Boudreau) 14:02 1st period; Lacasse (Levesque) 19:11 1st period; Joncas (Breton, Petit) 12:21 2nd period; Breton (Petit, Lessard) 10:21 3rd period; Breton (Petit) 19:28 3rd period;
24 hours after punching their ticket to the first round of the OUA playoffs, the Gee-Gees were back in action against the UQTR Patriotes to determine which position they would enter the post-season in. However, a penalty filled affair would see the Gee-Gees ultimately fall to UQTR on Saturday night by a score of 5-3.
Gee-Gees head coach Réal Paiement recently identified the need for his team to get off to better starts, and apparently those words did not fall on deaf ears as the Gee-Gees opened up the scoring just ten minutes into the game with a slap shot from the side boards that eluded Patriotes goaltender Guillaume Nadeau. Enforcer Jonathan Carnevale (Beaverton, Ont.) was credited with the goal.
The Gee-Gees’ lead was eliminated shortly after though on a 5-on-3 power play for the Patriotes. Gee-Gees goaltender Russell Abbott (Mill Bay, B.C.) was sprawled out in an attempt to follow the UQTR puck movement, but Patriote forward Jean-Sebastien Breton was finally able to jump on the open-net chance.
The teams would exchange goals in the later stages of the first frame, but it was the special teams play of the squads that was the focus of the bulk of the game. The Gee-Gees and Patriotes accumulated 25 infractions for a total of 58 penalty minutes on the evening.
“It’s tough for everyone to build momentum in that case,” explained coach Paiement. “I think tonight was the worst-refereed game of the year. Having said that, we had our chances ourselves but our power play continued to be a problem.”
Entering the third period deadlocked at three each, both teams continued the undisciplined play, taking turns on the power play and penalty kill for what seemed like the entire third period. However, it was the Patriotes who made the most of their opportunities, scoring on yet another two-man advantage.
The Patriotes would manage to maintain that edge for the remainder of the game while adding an empty netter in the final two-minutes, finishing the Gee-Gees off by a two goal margin.
Gee-Gee captain Matthieu Methot (Ottawa, Ont.) left the game midway through the second period after suffering a face injury from a flailing Patriote high-stick, a note of concern for the Gee-Gees entering into the post season.
“We don’t have access to a lot of guys right now, so that adds up,” Paiement said. “But with Methot, he’s our captain, he’s been on fire lately, and he’s been scoring almost every game, so that’s huge for us.”
The Gee-Gees will now be in preparation mode for their first round matchup against the Nipissing Lakers. The Garnet and Grey finished the regular season in sixth spot in the OUA East and will be looking to improve upon their strong play against Nipissing in the regular season.
“The playoffs are a brand new season and we will be starting with a clean sheet. This is a chance for a new start for all the guys,” said Paiement. “Right now, we have to improve on our speed of execution. We are doing everything too slow right now and our decisions take way too long.”
Playoff game dates have yet to be determined. Please refer to www.geegees.ca for further information upon its release.
