The Laurier Golden Hawks men’s hockey team found some momentum this weekend, beating the Carleton Ravens 4-1 on Friday and the Concordia Stingers 7-4 on Saturday. The Golden Hawks are currently riding a three-game win streak and trying to climb out of the basement in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) West division.
“We’ve got a little bit more offensive production out of everybody,” said head coach Greg Puhalski. “That obviously helps, instead of scoring two goals we’re getting more than that. We’re not turning the puck over as much and playing a little more responsibly defensively and it’s helping out our offensive game.”
Against Concordia, the Hawks benefitted from a few lucky bounces in their victory, especially on their opening goal.
A shot from Mitchell Good took a fortunate bounce off the glass and allowed Mitch Lebar an easy rebound goal.
“I got a nice bounce off the glass and I was ‘Johnny on the spot’ and tapped it in,” said Lebar. “It was a nice way to start the game.”
Lebar would finish the game with two goals and an assist, while linemates Good and Tyler Stothers would finish with four points each.
“The lines just got some chemistry going on together,” Lebar said. “[Ryan Daniels] helped us out so much defensively it was nice to put a weekend together and score some goals and ease the pressure off of him. Overall, we’re clicking, we’re practicing together and things are looking up.”
On Friday night, Daniels had a busier night. The Hawks workhorse made 45 saves in the win over Carleton. Trent Hawke scored two goals on Friday, while Marsden and Stothers had the others.
The Hawks’ strong weekend offensively was a welcoming change. The team never trailed in either game and also improved their record to 4-0 when they score three or more goals.
Puhalski was pleased with the team’s performance this weekend, but knows that improvements are necessary to continue their run.
“I think for us to have consistent success is just about playing better defensively and not giving up as many quality scoring chances,” he said. “We’ve done a better job of that, but when we get up in games we’ve got to make sure we keep the hammer on and don’t let up like we did in the third period [Saturday].”
The Hawks will look to continue their winning ways when the Western Mustangs visit Thursday night. Western won the first matchup of the year between the teams 3-2. However, Puhalski thinks his team is ready to extract some revenge.
“For us whenever you have a win streak you want to make sure you’re trying to play as much as possible and keep that groove and keep the momentum going in the right direction,” Puhalski said.
“Western’s a good hockey club, they are going to be a challenge, and for us we’ve got to keep to the same motto that we’ve had here as of late and that is good team defence and good team offence.”
Puck-drop is 7:30 p.m. at the Sun Life Financial Arena.