In what was a tale of two different teams, the Universite Quebec Trois-Rivieres Patriotes came on down to quiet little St. Catharines, Ontario hoping to keep their perfect 4-0 record alive against the 1-3 Brock Badgers. Those of us in the broadcast booth didn’t know what to make of this game. Some of us thought it would be a UQTR steamroll, while others thought maybe Brock would be able to pull one out. There were a couple of signs that things were not as they seemed in the OUA. First was the atrocious play of both team’s goaltenders. UQTR’s Guillaume Nadeau posted an .883 sv% in his 3 starts, while Brock’s terrible trio of Real Cormier, Adrian Volpe, and Clint Windsor had posted an .893, .875, and .875 sv% respectively across 4 games of bad starts and bad relief. Something had to give between these goalies, either UQTR was finally going to succumb to their substandard netminder, or Brock’s goaltending would come out of its funk and reach respectable levels. The other big issue was UQTR’s abysmal road special teams. 0 powerplay goals on the road, and 66% on road penalty killing, not good news for a team a long, long way from their home rink. These were amongst other talking points including Brock’s inability thus far to fill the offensive gap left by the departure of Thomas Stajan and Matt Abercrombie and UQTR’s depth of point producers, led by defenceman Martin Lefebvre, whose 9 points in 4 games already eclipsed his total of 8 from the previous year.
As we got closer to game time, the situation became a bit more interesting. UQTR was starting their rookie netminder Francis Desrosiers, which meant a different dynamic in net for the Patriotes. Instead of a Pavelec-esque starting goaltender, the Badgers would go up against a hotshot in his 2nd start, not necessarily a worsened situation. Sure Desrosiers had stopped 22 of 23 in a 6-1 victory over Royal Military College, but how would he come into a start two weeks after that fact? As the minutes ticked by before puck drop, the same questions kept running through: “Is UQTR really this good?” and “Is Brock really this bad?”
The answer to both turned out to be “no.” In what was a surprisingly riveting game, UQTR proved that they were certainly undeserving of that 4 ranking, and Brock certainly proved that they do not belong in or near the basement of the OUA West. Holding strong early, the Badgers looked like they were going to go punch-for-punch with the Patriotes. Tied at 1 early into the second, UQTR appeared to have dealt Brock a staggering blow. A seemingly harmless rush into the zone turned into a sudden shot from Marc-Olivier Mimar that fooled Adrian Volpe, and made the score 2-1. UQTR had positioned themselves well to secure a road win, but the Badgers had other plans.
Sticking to a solid, puck moving gameplan, Brock began to pepper Desrosiers, and their bottom lines worked the sandpaper into the Patriotes, drawing 2 man advantage situations. In literal bang-bang fashion, Sammy Banga tipped in a shot on the powerplay to tie the game up, and just over a minute later, sniped high blocker on Desrosiers giving Brock a 3-2 lead. The game would not be solved in regulation though, as an Anthony Verret shot from the right circle tied the game up with 3:55 to go.
Under new CIS rules, overtime would be played at 4-a-side for 5 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of 3-on-3 if the game had not been won; only after ten minutes of OT would a shootout be required. UQTR dominated the 4-on-4 period, throwing the puck at Volpe 9 times in 5 minutes, while Brock could only muster 3 attempts. It certainly didn’t look that one sided on the ice, but UQTR definitely enjoyed the benefits of more open ice. The game hit 3-on-3 and turned into a track meet, as playing with this much open ice tends to do. Both sides sent their best skaters out and gave them free reign. On an odd man rush midway through 2OT, Dylan MacEachern would get called for the hook on UQTR’s leading scorer Martin Lefebvre, and on the man-advantage, UQTR would finally get their first road PP goal, a hat-trick goal for Morin, giving the Patriotes the 4-3 win.
Overall, I think Brock did a great job of hanging with UQTR. The Patriotes came into this game with only 40 PIM total, and ended up taking 22 minutes in penalties against Brock. A tip of the hat goes to the Badgers, who drew UQTR into trying to match their physicality rather than utilizing their speed and talent. I’ve ripped on UQTR for not deserving that 4 spot they had in the CIS Rankings, but don’t get me wrong, they are a talented team. They didn’t need any help winning this one, although some might argue they got some. It’s a well known fact that the referees tend to pocket the whistle when it comes to overtime, which is why it was so shocking to see the hooking call come in the 2nd OT. The mood after the game was one of disapproval, a sentiment I somewhat share. The call on MacEachern was indeed questionable, especially so late in overtime. Martin Lefebvre drove the net hard at a speed MacEachern couldn’t match, but he got in tight and did get a shot off on Volpe, which appeared to be MacEachern’s defence on the way to the box, as well as after the final whistle. Again, I share the sentiment somewhat, but I believe Brock made their own bed when they sent out their penalty killers. Taylor Fielding, one of the slower Badgers on the team and not a natural centre, was sent out as the only forward on the kill, and to make matters worse, Brock had two chances to change on the kill, and but didn’t even think about switching up.
So overall, a disappointing end to an intense game, but it’s one that very few expected go so far. Brock did well to earn that point, but blew their chance for two by giving up an equalizer late and then mismanaging the PK in overtime.
Scoring Summary
1st – UQTR: #23 Marc-Olivier Mimar (#28 Tommy Giroux) [14:47]
1st – Brock: #8 Spencer Turcotte (#22 Daniel Zweep, #5 Evan Morden) [18:48]
2nd – UQTR: #23 Marc-Olivier Mimar (#28 Tommy Giroux) [4:00]
3rd – Brock: #9 Sammy Banga (#4 Thomas Welsh, #17 Andrew Radjenovic) PP [10:23]
3rd – Brock: #9 Sammy Banga (Unassisted) [11:50]
3rd – UQTR: #61 Anthony Verret (#10 Guillame Asselin) [16:05]
2OT – UQTR: #23 Marc-Olivier Mimar (#61 Anthony Verret, #20 Martin Lefebvre) [4:46]
Penalty Summary
1st – UQTR: #18 Carl-Antoine Delisle Checking from Behind [2]
1st – UQTR: #18 Carl-Antoine Delisle 10-Minute Misconduct [10]
1st – Brock: #15 Taylor Fielding High-Sticking [2]
2nd – UQTR: #18 Carl-Antoine Delisle Tripping [2]
2nd – UQTR: #57 Francis Desrosiers Delay of Game [2]
3rd – UQTR: #17 Mathieu Tanguay-Theriault Hooking [2]
3rd – UQTR: #26 Olivier D’Aoust Roughing After the Whistle [2]
3rd – UQTR: #47 Danick Malouin Roughing After the Whistle [2]
3rd – Brock: #22 Daniel Zweep Roughing After the Whistle [2]
3rd – Brock: #19 Jordan Gignac Hooking [2]
2OT – Brock: #26 Dylan MacEachern Hooking [2]
Player Stats
UQTR Patriotes
| # | Name | Pos | G | A | Shots | FOW | FOL | FO% | Pen +/- |
| 10 | Guillame Asselin | RW | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0% | – |
| 11 | Tommy Tremblay | LW | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – |
| 16 | Mikael Langlois | D | 0 | 0 | 1 | – | – | – | – |
| 17 | Mathieu Tanguay-Theriault | RW | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 100% | -1 |
| 18 | Carl-Antoine Delisle | LW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100% | -3 |
| 19 | Jason Rajotte | RW | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – |
| 20 | Martin Lefebvre | D | 0 | 1 | 4 | – | – | – | +1 |
| 21 | Felix Plouffe | C | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 66% | – |
| 22 | Billy Lacasse | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 33% | – |
| 23 | Marc-Olivier Mimar | RW | 3 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 100% | – |
| 24 | Vincent Marcoux | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 62% | +1 |
| 25 | Raphael Boudreau | D | 0 | 0 | 2 | – | – | – | – |
| 26 | Olivier D’Aoust | LW | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | +1 |
| 27 | Antoine Quevillion | RW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 50% | – |
| 28 | Tommy Giroux | C | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 100% | +1 |
| 47 | Danick Malouin | D | 0 | 0 | 1 | – | – | – | -1 |
| 61 | Anthony Verret | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 50% | – |
| 77 | Guillaume Belanger | D | 0 | 0 | 1 | – | – | – | – |
| # | Name | S | SV | SV% | GA | Pen +/- | |||
| 57 | Francis Desrosiers | 29 | 26 | .896 | 3 | -1 | |||
Brock Badgers
|
# |
Name | Pos | G | A | Shots | FOW | FOL | FO% | Pen +/- |
| 2 | Anthony Geldart | D | 0 | 0 | 1 | – | – | – | +1 |
| 4 | Thomas Welsh | D | 0 | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | – |
| 5 | Evan Morden | D | 0 | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | – |
| 8 | Spencer Turcotte | LW | 1 | 0 | 3 | – | – | – | +1 |
| 9 | Sammy Banga | RW | 2 | 0 | 3 | – | – | – | – |
| 10 | Greg Jambrosich | C | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 5 | 64% | – |
| 11 | Jamie Kendra | RW | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 25% | – |
| 12 | Kaine Geldart | LW | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 50% | – |
| 14 | Tyson Dallman | C | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 70% | – |
| 15 | Taylor Fielding | RW | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0% | -1 |
| 17 | Andrew Radjenovic | C | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 38% | – |
| 19 | Jordan Gignac | RW | 0 | 0 | 3 | – | – | – | -1 |
| 22 | Daniel Zweep | LW | 0 | 1 | 2 | – | – | – | 0 |
| 23 | Dan Tanel | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – |
| 25 | Yanni Rallis | RW | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – |
| 26 | Dylan MacEachern | C | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 50% | +1 |
| 27 | Tyler Anton | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – |
| 55 | Mike McGurk | D | 0 | 0 | 1 | – | – | – | – |
| # | Name | S | SV | SV% | GA | Pen +/- | |||
| 29 | Adrian Volpe | 27 | 23 | .852 | 4 | – | |||
Possession Stats
|
Situation |
Brock | UQTR | ||
| CF | CF% | CF | CF% | |
| 5v5 (Overall) | 53 | 51% | 51 | 49% |
| 5v5 (1st) | 15 | 50% | 15 | 50% |
| 5v5 (2nd) | 23 | 46% | 27 | 54% |
| 5v5 (3rd) | 15 | 63% | 9 | 37% |
| 4v4 | 3 | 25% | 9 | 75% |
| 3v3 | 4 | 67% | 2 | 33% |
| Brock 5v4 | 20 | 95% | 1 | 5% |
| UQTR 5v4 | 1 | 20% | 4 | 80% |
| Brock 4v3 | – | – | – | – |
| UQTR 4v3 | 0 | 0% | 3 | 100% |
Frank on Sports 