“I think our goalie made the difference”
Rookie Alexis Bonefon was the hero on Thursday night at the Minto Sports Complex as the Gee-Gees welcomed the 11-0-1 Concordia Stingers to town. With an injury-depleted roster, the team rallied to force overtime against the division-leading Stingers.
In the first minute of the extra frame, Bonefon took a stretch pass from defender Peter Stratis on his knees in front of the Gee’s goal and fooled Nikolas Hurtubise 200 feet later. To even make it to overtime cost 43 saves from Gee-Gees netminder Franky Lapenna, including two five-star efforts with his left pad just moments prior.
The Gee-Gees used a breakaway goal from defender Anson McMaster and a nice passing play that led to a wide-open Bradley Chenier scoring from the slot to match Concordia’s two goals entering the third period.
The Gee-Gees men’s hockey team have been bit by the injury bug, forcing defenders into the lineup as forwards for weeks now, something exceedingly rare in today’s system-heavy environment. Johnny Howie and Matt Strilets were the defenders tapped to move to the other end of the bench Thursday.
“Injuries are a hard thing,” said head coach Patrick Grandmaître after game. “But it’s giving opportunities to some guys to get in the lineup and contribute, and those guys are really doing it right now, so it’s a fun time.”
Howie contributed an assist on McMaster’s goal in the second period as he took shifts on Gee-Gees captain Anthony Poulin’s wing, and also successfully screened Hurtubise on Zach Giroux’s goal from the point on the power play in the third period.
“[Howie’s] established himself as a good forward,” acknowledged Grandmaître, noting his prowess on breakouts especially. The veteran bench boss also pointed out that without Lapenna, this game wouldn’t have been a contest.
“Most of the time tonight, they were the better team. I think our goalie made the difference, [along with] some timely scoring, so I’m happy we found a way to win.” Grandmaître’s view was backed up by Concordia leading in the shots department 46-29. Lapenna made multiple game-saving stops, including a pad stack in the third period as he gave the injury-depleted Gees a shot to win.
The Gee-Gees, coming off a 5-1 win over #7 Queen’s on Saturday, collected the last spot in the national top-ten on Monday despite their 6-5 record. But that record also includes a 5-4 win over the #9 Ontario Tech Ridgebacks and a 2-1 win over the #3 UQTR Patriotes.
Grandmaître called those early-season wins “a big positive,” and talked about taking care of business against unranked teams the rest of the season. Their schedule begins to open up from here as they get out of the bloodbath that is the OUA East.
The Gees get a week to recover and hopefully reduce their injured reserve as they are set to take on the 2-6-2 Laurier Golden Hawks and 4-6-1 Waterloo Warriors next weekend, before dates with the bottom-of-the-table Carleton Ravens and RMC Paladins the following week.
