Although men’s hockey salvaged a pair of points from their two-game homestand, head coach Brett Gibson isn’t satisfied with his team’s performance.
“My body hurts,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like a win right now. We’ll take it, it’s two points in the newspaper, but we’ve got to play a lot better.”
The Gaels’ defeated the Brock Badgers 4-3 this Saturday in their first home win of the season. The game came a night after a 3-1 loss suffered at the hands of the York Lions.
Queen’s forward Patrick McGillis scored the game’s winning goal 9:21 into the third period to break a 3-3 tie. But in a confusing moment in the last two minutes, the Badgers scored what they believed was another equalizer — only to have the goal nullified because they had too many men on the ice.
“When I saw the goal go in, there was a lot of white,” Gibson said, referring to Brock’s jersey colour. “I looked and thought they must have pulled the goalie, but they didn’t. The ref made the right call, good on him. A lot of times they miss that.”
Midway through the second period, Queen’s carried a 3-1 lead on goals from Peter Angelopolous, Slater Doggett and Harrison Hendrix, but saw themselves concede a late second period goal, and an equalizer in the third period off the stick of Brock’s Mitch Nardi.
The win was the first of rookie goaltender Jacob Brennan’s OUA career, who made 40 saves last night.
“He was fantastic and saved the game,” Gibson said.
In Friday’s match-up against the Lions, Andrew Wiebe opened the scoring for the Gaels, but the team was unable to find the back of the net after his initial goal. Queen’s goaltender Kevin Bailie made 21 saves in the loss.
“If we want to be a top team in the league, our consistency has got to be a lot better,” Gibson said. “It’s still not where we need to be to be a top-four team.”
For Brennan, who previously played for the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads, he was just satisfied to pick up the first win of his university career.
“It’s a great feeling. The guys played hard tonight,” he said. “There were a couple of mistakes tonight, but at the end of the day, we got the two points and that’s all that really matters.”
Brennan said Brock’s waved-off goal made it a game to remember.
“It was a unique experience to say the least,” he said. “You don’t see too many calls like that in the hockey game, but it was good to see that one go our way.”
The Gaels travel to Thunder Bay next weekend for a pair of match-ups against the Lakehead Thunderwolves.
“We just have to get back to work on Monday and start preparing,” Brennan said. “They’re going to be tough competition.”
Tags
brett gibson, Jacob Brennan, Men's hockey
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