Anaemic power play will cost the Gees in the long run
The University of Ottawa men’s hockey team had an offensive explosion against the Queen’s Gaels on Friday, Nov. 25, but couldn’t stop a lethal University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) power play the following afternoon.
Queen’s
Six different players found the back of the net for the U of O on Friday, as the Gee-Gees downed the Gaels by a final score of 6–3.
The game started with the Gaels dominating much of the first period. However, it was Gees forward Kevin Domingue who scored the only goal of the frame, netting his team-leading seventh goal of the season at just past the 14-minute mark.
Queen’s owned a 10–3 shot advantage entering the second, and the Gees were lucky to be up by one at the start of the frame. Forward John Deacon scored his third goal of the season just 23 seconds into the period to increase Ottawa’s lead to two.
Midway through the second, Queen’s scored a shorthanded goal on the Gees to make the game 2–1. The U of O’s power-play struggled this weekend, going 0–9 and allowing one shorthanded goal.
Despite this lackluster power play, Gees forward Marc Beckstead would make it 3–1 before the end of the second period.
The third period saw an explosion of goals compared to the first 40 minutes of play. The Gees outscored Queen’s 3–2 off of contributions from Adam Beveridge, Jacob Hanlon, and Michael Poirier to bring the scoreboard to 6–3.
The shots on goal for the game were 22–18 in favour of the Gaels, and the U of O should be happy to come out of the game with a win, considering it’s rare to score six goals on just 18 shots.
UOIT
While the penalty kill has been a strength for the Gees all season long, it would be their undoing against the UOIT Ridgebacks.
The first period started slowly, with neither team able to generate much. The Gees had a power-play early on that was completely stifled by UOIT, and sustained pressure from the Ridgebacks later caused the Gees to take their first penalty of the game.
The Gees almost killed off the man advantage, but with 22 seconds left the Ridgebacks found a way past Gees goaltender Graham Hunt to go up 1–0.
Just one minute later Ottawa took another penalty, and the Ridgebacks would make them pay for it again with a goal, going up 2–0.
UOIT did everything they could to give Ottawa the game in the second period, allowing the Gees to have four power plays, including a full two-minute five-on-three advantage.
Unfortunately the Gees couldn’t defeat Ridgebacks’ goaltender Brendan O’Neill, and with under a minute to go in the period UOIT would score their third goal of the game on their third power play opportunity.
Midway through the third period, Ottawa finally managed to beat O’Neill to close the gap by two goals. Sadly, that was as close as they would come. UOIT scored an empty-netter with six seconds left and the game would end with a 4–1 decision in favour of the Ridgebacks.
Ottawa’s offence has been its weakness this year, so it was nice to see them get six goals against a strong Queen’s team. However, they need to find a way to get their power-play going if they want to do better heading into the second half of their season.
The Gees’ last two home games of 2016 will take place on Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 3 at 7:00 p.m. at the Minto Sports Complex. Tickets can be purchased here.
