Gee-Gees looking to make adjustments heading into the regular season
On Sept. 22, the Minto Sports Complex hosted a matchup between the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees and the St.Francis Xavier X-men in preseason action for men’s hockey.
There were some interesting ties between the host Gee-Gees and visiting X-Men.
U of O head coach Patrick Grandmaitre, assistant coach Nathan Chiarlitti, and forward Eric Locke have all played for the X-Men at some point.
“Honestly, it’s the first minute or the pregame stuff that’s a bit exciting. But once the game starts, it’s still one team against another to be honest,” Grandmaitre said. “You want to win a bit more because it’s your old school. I’m competitive and want to win every game.”
The game turned out to be a penalty-ridden one, with 28 minutes of time in the box handed out in total. The Gee-Gees would account for 18 of those minutes.
The scoring started five minutes into the first period when St. FX got the puck past Gee-Gees goaltender Anthony Brodeur.
In a three-on-one situation, U of O forward Kevin Domingue tied the game with an unassisted goal.
The Garnet and Grey would follow that goal up with multiple scoring opportunities, but couldn’t capitalize.Gee-Gees second-year forward Connor Sills was given a great opportunity to score with a pass from Matt Dunlop, but the St. FX goaltender was able to get in front of it.
At last, in the beginning of the second, Locke would get a loose puck into the net, scoring against his former team, to put the U of O up 2-1.
However, the X-Men were soon able to tie the game up, taking advantage of a boarding penalty by the Gee-Gees.
This would make it 2-2 going into the third, but it would be all downhill from there for the home team.
St. FX would get two more between the posts as time went on to put the Gee-Gees behind 4-2, followed by an extra one in the last 14 seconds, making the final score 5-2 for the X-Men.“There’s definitely good signs out there from the three exhibition games we’ve played. I think in the third period we’ve been outscored in every game.” Locke said.
Despite the loss, the team will be using the game to prepare for the regular season.
“(We will be) reviewing video and breaking down our mistakes. I think we’ll learn from some of those breakdowns, and also learn from what St. FX does well,” Grandmaitre said. “I mean, a lot of learning opportunities is looking at what other teams do well.”
The Gee-Gees will start the regular season against none other than the Carleton Ravens on Oct. 11 at the Carleton Ice House.
They will be back home on Oct. 14 to take on the McGill Redmen. Grab tickets here.
