An explosive first period that featured Mitchell Good and Nathan Peacock scoring 32 seconds apart within the first two minutes of the game gave a boisterous Laurier crowd, heavily made up of Winter Carnival attendees, much to cheer for early on, as the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawksโ menโs hockey team rode a strong first period to a 4-2 victory over the visiting Brock Badgers on Friday night.
โWe came out really strong,โ said game-winning goal-scorer Paul Bradley. โWe had some great fan support so it was a good energy boost. We fed off their energy and we held our own.โ
Brock forward Steve Pattison cut the lead to 2-1 at the start of the first period, but goals by Hawksโ scoring leader Bradley and third-year sniper Voakes extended the Laurier lead to 4-1 by the end of the period.
In the second period, Badger winger Adam Schwark cut the purple and gold lead in half, but that was as close as the Badgers would get.
Laurier goalie Jeff MacDougald was brilliant in the effort, making 29 saves on 31 shots, solidly shutting the door to a late Brock come back.
โOur goaltending was great tonight,โ said Good. โWe had a good all-around four lines going, you canโt ask for much more than that.โ
โAs the game went on our play began to get choppy,โ continued Bradley. โBut we held them off.โ
With the victory, the Hawkโs climb one more spot in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) rankings to number seven, with eight games left in the regular season.
Laurierโs next game is on Thursday when they host the Guelph Gryphons; on Sunday the number 10 nationally-ranked Lakehead Thunderwolves come to town.