Another Hawks’ comeback falls short

The Golden Hawk men’s hockey team got went a shocking 0/12 on the power play, and number one net-minder Ryan Daniels got pulled after 40 minutes as coach Greg Puhalski’s troops fell to the Guelph Gryphons 3-2 in Guelph on Saturday night.

For the second time in two nights, the Hawks had to battle back from a 3-0 deficit as Andrew Merrett, Edward Gale, and Thomas Kiriakou all counted for the Gryphons by the 12:17 mark of the second period.

Hawks rookie Kain Allicock got the comeback started at 6:49 of the third period, and Laurier’s leading scorer Ryan Bellows cut the Guelph lead to one with less than two minutes left in the game. Yet the Hawks could not get any closer than that despite finishing the game with the man advantage after fourth-year Gryphon Kris Belan took match penalty for a hit to the head.

The Laurier loss combined with the Lakehead Thunderwolves’ win over Brock, means that the Thunderwolves move ahead of the Hawks into second place in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Western Conference with two games. With a light schedule ahead for Laurier, and only one point separating the second, third, and fourth places in the conference, it is imperative for the Hawks to not drop anymore points.

Three of Laurier’s five remaining games are at home against teams they should defeat, while one of their two road games are against conference cellar-dwellers York.

Due to the fact that the Hawks are much better at home than on the road, a high seeding is crucial for the purple and gold to go far in the playoffs.Their next game is Thursday night as they take on the vastly improved fifth-place Windsor Lancers at the Waterloo Recreation Complex.