By Mike Jagassar
After narrowly edging out the Brock Badgers for a 3-2 win last weekend, the Ryerson Rams men’s hockey team fell to the same team by an eyebrow-raising 5-2 on Nov. 28 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
With the loss, the Rams drop to 10-4-2 on the season while the Badgers improve to 10-5-1—just one point behind Ryerson in the Ontario University Athletics West standings.
Brock dominated the majority of the game, outplaying and heavily outshooting the Rams 41-25.
The Badgers started off strong early with defenceman Connor Walters capitalizing on a two-on-one chance to take a 1-0 lead in the first period.
Brock forwards Adam Berg and Tyler Rollo followed that up with goals of their own while Ryerson potted in two successful chances from forwards Hayden McCool and Jesse Barwell to end the first period down 3-2.
In the first period alone, the Rams weren’t able to get a shot on goal until the 8:37 minute mark. They were outshot 20-9 by the end of that first frame.
“We were just sloppy, we weren’t sharp and for whatever reason, we came out sluggish and not ready,” said Rams head coach Johnny Duco. “They came out and absolutely dominated us and just took it to us.”
The second period also started off pretty uneventful for Ryerson as Brock forward Jared Marino split the Rams’ defence and put one past goaltender Garrett Forrest.
A defensive battle for most of the third, came to a premature ending when Rams defenceman Zach Shankar took an elbowing penalty with over seven minutes left to play.
Shortly after, forward Cosimo Fontana buried home the fifth and final goal for the Badgers, thanks to beautiful passes from linemates Frankie Pucci and Berg.
Ryerson played the final few minutes short-handed, after star forward Mathew Santos was ejected from the game with a 10-minute game misconduct for making head contact on Brock’s Ryan Burton at the 17:39 minute mark.
Forward Cavin Leth also left the game earlier in the period with a wrist injury.
“We need to do a better job of being locked in,” said Duco. “Saturday’s a big character test for us against a really good Western team. We’ll regroup and look for a better effort on Saturday.”
UP NEXT: The Rams look to bounce back from this loss and avoid entering the winter break with a two-game losing streak when they travel to face the Western Mustangs on Nov. 30.
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