Waterloo, Ont. - Forward Conor Ali's two-goal performance lifted the Laurier Golden Hawks to a hard-fought 4-1 win over the TMU Bold in Thursday night's match at SunLife Financial Arena.

The first period opened with TMU testing Laurier's defence and all-star netminder Christian Propp. The fourth-year goalie stood tall, making some great saves to keep the Bold off of the scoreboard. After 20 minutes of play, neither team could find the back of the net.

The Golden Hawks broke the ice as Conor Ali tipped a shot from Ryan Mulholland past Kai Edmunds 2:25 into the second period. The goal was Ali's first of the campaign.

Ali struck again to extend the Laurier lead, this time 3:09 into the third period, as he stole the puck from a TMU defenseman and scored on a self-made breakaway. He's got 5 points in 9 games so far this season. 

The Bold were able to find life 13:49 into the third period as Connor Bowie made no mistake on a breakaway. Although TMU found life, it wasn't enough. In the closing minutes of the game, Sam Rhodes and Thomas Lenart sealed Laurier's victory with a couple of empty net goals.

Laurier netminder Christian Propp was outstanding, stopping 45 of TMU's 46 shots on goal. "What'd he make, like 45 saves? He played amazing," said Ali, "he's the backbone of our team."

"I think 60 minutes of hard work wins a lot of games in this league," said Head Coach Kevin Forrest, "so when our guys put that together it's a beautiful thing."

"The trick now is making sure we can do that consistently and make sure that when we take two steps forward we don't take one back" 

PLUS/MINUS

Plus + Conor Ali 

Until just last year, Ali was a defenseman. He played 3 seasons on the blueline in the OHL with the Sudbury Wolves, Kingston Frontenacs and Hamilton Bulldogs and began last season on the back end. When Forrest came to him with the proposition to move up to the wing early last year the psychology major "accepted it and didn't moan about it. He comes to the rink with a great attitude every day."

Ali had a hot start to the season as he made beautiful plays to set up Nick Guinta for a goal in back-to-back games, but couldn't find the scoresheet in the last 5 games. "I've been in a rut so it feels nice to get the monkey off my back", said Ali. 

"Tonight he was reading plays and picking off pucks. He was ready to go tonight," said Forrest, "it's nice to see him get rewarded with a couple of goals after working that hard."

Plus + Christian Propp

Propp looked stellar in this one. The Shoresy star came out big, "he was outstanding," said Forrest, "we gave three prime chances in the slot early on and he stood there every time and made the save for us." 

Propp, a kinesiology major, has started 8 games so far this season and leads the OUA in saves with 217 and boasts a 0.919 save percentage. He leads the OUA in minutes played by a period and a half with 483 minutes spent in between the pipes.