Gaels stymied by Paladins

Men’s hockey claws back from two-goal defecit to lose in shootout during Remembrance Day game at Royal Military College

Forward David Chubb tries to negotiate his way through two Paladin defencemen during Wednesday’s shootout loss.
Image by: Christine Blais
Forward David Chubb tries to negotiate his way through two Paladin defencemen during Wednesday’s shootout loss.

In the only hockey game in CIS action on Wednesday, the Gaels dropped a 4-3 decision to the Royal Military College Paladins, falling in a shootout.

Head coach Brett Gibson said he was short of answers to figuring out what happened.

“It’s just one of those games where nothing seemed to work for us,” he said.

The Gaels had a tough start right out of the gate, going on the penalty kill almost immediately and allowing their first goa­l a little over three minutes into the first period. RMC added a second before Queen’s finally got on the board, a freak goal from Mike Bushby that bounced off a defender’s skate in front of the net, bringing the score to 2-1 going into the period break.

The second period saw the Gaels pull even with a goal from forward David Chubb before they took the lead in the third period with a power-play goal from forward Jordan Mirwaldt. The Paladins responded almost immediately, though, sending the game into overtime and ultimately a shootout.

In the shootout, Paladins goaltender Andrew Flemming blanked all three Queen’s shooters, while the one shot Gaels’ goalie Mackenzie Ball let past him was enough to seal the game. Ball made 37 saves in the losing effort.

Gibson said there wasn’t much difference between the RMC team the Gaels played last night, and the one they played to an 8-7 win in their Sept. 17 pre-season matchup on Sept. 19.

“RMC didn’t do anything, their goalie played really well and made key saves at some points,” he said. “The refereeing was questionable, anytime you outplay a team for 60 minutes and you’re on the penalty kill six times and on the power play twice, something’s up. But it was just one of those games where nothing was happening and you just need to work past it.”

With the loss, the 3-4-1 Gaels are eighth in the 10-team OUA East, one point behind the seventh-place Paladins and nine points behind first-place Université du Québec à Trois Rivières Patriotes. With games this weekend against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues and York Lions, Gibson said the team needs to re-ignite their passion for the game.

“We just have to have some excitement on our team right now,” he said. “You’ve got to be excited to play but with midterms and with the flu bug we can’t do that. We’re going through that stretch of the season where we’re lacking enthusiasm.”

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