TORONTO, Ont. - The Laurier Golden Hawks took game one of their OUA West first round playoff match-up with a 7-4 victory over the Toronto Varsity Blues at Varsity Arena on Wednesday night.
The last time the Golden Hawks scored seven goals in a single game, you'd have to look back to January 2020 when Laurier defeated the Western Mustangs 7-3.
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The Golden Hawks took control of the game early.
Patrick Brown broke into the Varsity Blues zone and dropped the puck back to Nick Guinta to give the purple and gold the first lead of the series 5:15 into Game 1.
Laurier extended their lead two minutes later when
Eli Reimer tipped a point shot from
Callum Chisholm over the shoulder of Toronto's rookie netminder, Jordan Farley.
The Golden Hawks extended their lead to 3-0 only 28 seconds later. Brown won a face-off back to second-year defenseman
Bryce Kilbourne, who let go a shot that was initially denied by Farley, but
Conor Ali was waiting on the doorstep to score his first of the series.
After twenty minutes of play, the Laurier Golden Hawks lead the Varsity Blues 3-0. Laurier kept the pressure on early in the second period. First-year Golden Hawk
Bryce Sutherland danced into the Toronto zone and dropped the puck to Sam Williamson who put the Golden Hawks up by four goals.
The fourth goal resulted in the Varsity Blues pulling Farley and Jett Alexander replaced him in between the pipes.
After Alexander hit the ice, momentum swung in U of T's favour, and they scored three unanswered goals.
Ben Woodhouse put the Blues on the board 9:31 into the second period. Cole Purboo scored the second goal for Toronto and Julian Recine scored on a late second-period power play to make the game 4-3.
Isaac Sooklal ripped a quick shot that beat Alexander glove side to give the Golden Hawks a two-goal lead midway through the third period.
Julian Recine scored a second power-play goal to make it 5-4 with 2:32 remaining in the game.
The Blues kept on the pressure and pulled Alexander to maximize scoring potential, but
Eli Reimer slid his second goal of the game into the empty net with just under two minutes remaining in the game.
Toronto pulled Alexander for a second time and this time it was
Bryce Kilbourne who managed to lift the puck over everyone's heads from behind the Golden Hawk goal line and the back of the Varsity Blues empty goal to make the game 7-4.
The purple and gold were outshot a combined 30-11 in the second and third frames.
Laurier netminder
Christian Propp was great in this one. He stopped 34 of 38 shots and made critical saves to keep the Golden Hawks in front of U of T.
Plus + Consistency
The Golden Hawks' big players have shown up for this series. The usual suspects were flying last night and are all over the stats sheet. Over the past two games,
Patrick Brown and
Conor Ali have five points,
Nick Giunta has three goals and first-year Golden Hawks
Eli Reimer,
Isaac Sooklal and
Callum Chisholm all have three points.
Up Next
The Golden Hawks are one win away from moving on to the second round of the Queen's Cup Playoffs.
Laurier has been held from the second round of the playoffs since the 2010-11 season and they have a chance to punch their ticket on Saturday afternoon when they host the Toronto Varsity Blues at the Sun Life Financial Arena.
