The Laurier Men’s Hockey team has had a rocky ending to their season as with only two games left the team is on a six-game losing streak.
They are still 14-14-4 overall and 13-10-3 in conference play, but have recently come off losses from Toronto, Western, Guelph and Waterloo and have gone scoreless in their last two games.
Even with stellar goaltending from both Colin Furlong and Chris Festarini, who have each only allowed one goal in the last two games, the offense just could not find the back of the net on the other end.
The team’s leading scorer Anthony Sorrentino has just one goal in the last six games, and points leader Brandon Robinson has only one goal and one assist.
Yet on the defensive end, the team has let 23 goals get past them when only scoring nine themselves. Coach Puhalski realises his team’s downfall and has said in order to end the season strong “we need to keep playing and stay with our game plan in order to turn the page. We have not scored the last two games and we have given up two goals in the last two games. There’s good and bad.”
Laurier’s next game is a final Battle of Waterloo on Feb. 7 at the Kitchener Auditorium and although they lost in overtime 5-4 to the Warriors on Jan. 20, that is the team’s only loss to the Warriors and they have three wins over them this season in total.
The Golden Hawks’ final game this season is against Lakehead in Thunder Bay, who they also have two wins over this season. The main battle will take place defensively, as the team has given up over double what they have scored this season.
“To score more, we need to shoot more and we need to fight for space in the scoring areas,” coach Puhalski said.
The team has scored 21 goals against Waterloo this season in both non-conference and regular season play, and will be looking to end their losing streak against them. “A key for us to beat Waterloo, or any other team, is for us to focus on our own play and what we need to do.”