Queen’s Men’s Hockey wins two to keep streak alive

Gaels victorious over Ridgebacks and Lakers

Image by: Curtis Heinzl
Kolton Cousins advances the puck.

Queen’s Men’s Hockey has a five-game win streak—they’re undefeated in the new year.

On Friday night, the Gaels met the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks on home ice. The Ridgebacks were ranked second in the OUA East division heading into the game, but the seventh-ranked Gaels made sure to change that.

Queen’s took control right away with lots of pressure on net and consistent possession. Ontario Tech responded with similar drive; however, neither team converted their shots. Both teams were evenly matched with five shots on net, each in the first period.

There was still no action by the second period. Both teams were playing well, but neither could produce results.

Finally, in the third period, Queen’s rallied to preserve their win streak as Nolan Hutcheson took advantage of quick and intense pressure in front of Ontario Tech’s net. He attributed the team’s newfound late-season success to them finally clicking.

“In the first half we were still kind of feeling each other out and kind of getting the vibes of the team, and now we are kind of firing in all cylinders and it’s really good,” he said in a post-game interview with The Journal.

In the last few minutes against the Ridgebacks, the Gaels continued to click and set up a series of great shots on net, but the Ridgebacks goalie Leif Hertz didn’t allow another point.

Queen’s goalie Luke Richardson finished with a shutout as the Gaels won 1-0.

The next night, they geared up to face the Nipissing lakers for their third time this month.

The Saturday night game featured a Teddy Bear Toss event, so fans were encouraged to bring stuffed animals to throw onto the rink with Queen’s first goal of the night. The toys were then to be collected by members of the Junior Gaels team and donated to children in the hospital.

Queen’s University Children’s Healthcare Association and Queen’s Men’s Hockey held the event together to support the University Hospital Kingston Foundation.

The game started off rough for the Gaels as the Lakers secured two goals in the first period. Having played Nipissing just a few weeks prior, the Gaels knew the effort needed to win.

Less than 10 minutes into the second period, Hutcheson scored his second goal of the weekend and made the teddy bears rain. From there, the Gaels were off as Hutcheson scored again seven minutes later, followed by goals from Lucas Peric, Josh Curtis, Ryan Cranford, Hayden Fowler, and Alex Robert.

The Gaels stopped all other Laker advances to end with a 7-2 victory.

Although proud of the team’s performance, Hutcheson had a solid reminder for the Gaels.

“Every game is a playoff game right now and we just need to win as much as we can.”

Tags

Memorial Arena, Men's hockey, Nipissing Lakers, Ridgebacks, win

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content