By Dylan Freeman-Grist
The Ryerson men’s hockey team will be advancing to the semifinals against the Lakehead University Thunderwolves after a decisive win against division rival Brock University Badgers Sunday night.
The 6-3 win came in game three of the best-of-three series against Brock — granting Ryerson the 2-1 result needed to advance to the next stage of the OUA West division playoffs.
“We just came out hard and I don’t think they really could counteract what we were doing, we were on them forecheck, backcheck everywhere,” said Jamie Wise, who scored twice and continues to lead the Rams in scoring.
Dominic Alberga opened up scoring for the Rams four minutes into the first period. His early score was followed by a pair of goals from Robert Visca and Wise.
With an early 3-0 lead for Ryerson, Brock switched out their starting goalie before responding with their own goal — with two minutes reaming in the first.
The second period went back and forth between the two teams. Brock scored twice and Wise got his second goal of the night, pushing the score to 5-3 before the end of the period.
In the third, Steve Taylor scored the final goal two minutes before the whistle capping off scoring at 6-3 and sealing the win for Ryerson.
The win is a notable milestone for The Rams who have not advanced to the second round of the playoffs in four seasons.
“We had to get by those guys they’re a gritty team, so you know I give all the credit to our players, they’ve worked hard all year,” head coach Graham Wise said. “You wipe the slate clean and you come into the playoffs against a gritty team like Brock and we had to battle hard and obviously they took us the full length so it means a lot to get through this round.”
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