Waterloo, ON - Laurier netminder Christian Propp put up 46 saves in a 3-2 loss against the visiting Nipissing Lakers on Friday.
The Golden Hawks opened the game with an early penalty, but the penalty kill held down the fort. The purple and gold found themselves on the penalty kill two more times in the first, but remained strong.
Nipissing threw 20 shots in Christian Propp's direction, but the OUA All-star stood tall and denied each attempt. The Lakers held the Golden Hawks to a measly 9 shots in the opening frame.
Nipissing's Charlie Johnson found Kyle Foreman back door to break the deadlock at 12:25 in the second period.
The Golden Hawks power play brought the game back to even with 12 seconds remaining in the middle frame. Conor Ali threaded a pass through a wall of Lakers to Patrick Brown, who ripped a one-timer into the back of Nipissing's goal.
After being unable to connect on a powerplay early in the third period, the Golden Hawks found themselves on the wrong end of a 5-on-3. Nipissing's Harrison Caines used the extra time and space to his advantage, beating Propp with a nice shot to give the Lakers the lead.
The Lakers extended their lead to 3-1, when a Mathieu Franche point shot was deflected and found it's way behind Propp.
Laurier fought back and were rewarded as Nick Giunta scored his sixth goal of the season. He has scored all of his goals so far this season on home ice. Robert Strachan picked up the first point of his young OUA career on the goal.
The Hawks had a couple of golden opportunities to even the score, but Reese Proulx came up big to hold the Lakers 3-2 lead until the final buzzer sounded.
Despite dropping their sixth game in a row, Assistant Coach Jermone Dupont said "I thought we played pretty good in this one. The penalty kill was real good, they had a five-on-three goal and a lucky one, but all in all we were strong."
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PLUS/MINUS
Plus + Atypical Shoot Out
Laurier and Nipissing combined for 88 shots on the night. Lakers' netminder Reese Proulx put up 37 saves on 39 Golden Hawks shots.
Laurier's Christian Propp stopped over 40 shots against for the third straight game. He stopped 46 of 49 Nipissing shots on Friday night. While he has a record of 3-10-0, Propp has a season save percentage of 0.926.
Minus - Six Straight Losses
This loss against Nippising marks Laurier's sixth straight loss. Early penalties and goals often go in the favour of the opposing team. The Golden Hawks lead the league in shots against
"We just have to clean up our defense and stay out of the box," said Dupont, "we get a lot of quality chances, just do a better job of bearing down in front of the net"
UP NEXT
The Golden Hawks close out the second half of a back-to-back in a home stand against the number 3 Brock Badgers. In October, the Golden Hawks held the powerhouse to a pair of goals in a tight match. The purple and gold look to steal a pair of points from the big bad Badgers Saturday at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale now.
If you can't be at the game, follow the action on X (formerly Twitter) at @WLUAthletics or live on OUA.tv
