By Steve Petrick
After a weekend loss to Brock University, it has become apparent that St. Michael is not the patron saint of the Ryerson hockey team.
Not one, but two Brock Badger shots changed direction after hitting partitions between the glass at St. Mike’s Arena and caught Rams goalie Steve Bewley off guard.
The pair of flukes powered the St. Catharines-based university to a 5-3 win Friday night, just two weeks after a broken water main at the rink cancelled a game against Guelph.
The Badgers pounced into first place in the OUA Mis-West division with the win.
The loss gives Ryerson a record of 2-4, good for third in the four-team division. A win on Friday would have left Ryerson tied for top spot with Brock.
The Rams’ fate was almost sealed when the first unlucky bounce hit them four minutes into the game.
Ryerson right-winger Eric Medieros had just converted a pass from Jason Kotack for a 1-0 lead four minutes into the game when a Brock player tried to whirl the puck into the corner. The puck hit the glass and hopped to an open Badger in the slot. His shot hit a player’s skate and went past Bewley to tie the game at one.
Ryerson coach Louie Carnevale said his team was better than the current division leaders on Friday and the game was one of Ryerson’s best this season.
“We out-played them. We out shot them. We deserved to win that game,” he said.
Late in the first period Medieros helped Ryerson regain the lead.
While being checked in the corner he somehow fed the puck to Ryan Love in front of the net. Love banged it home to give the Rams a 2-1 lead at the first intermission.
For the first 15 minutes of the second period Ryerson dominated play, had several breakaways and perhaps would have had several goals had it not been for the superb play of Brock’s goalie Marc LaChance.
That’s why any Ram could be forgiven for losing his sanity after seeing Brock score another undeserving goal.
At 15:05 of the second period, a Badger player shot the puck from centre ice aiming for the corner boards.
Bewley jumped out of his crease early to try and catch the puck behind the net, but the puck, again, changed direction after hitting the glass and slid into the open net.
“My momentum was already going behind the net. Once you’re going that way, it’s hard to stop,” Bewley said. “That’s why I made a vain attempt.”
The 23-year-old netminder, who played defence and forward last year, could only laugh at his misfortune after the game. “It’s like a play you see in a Don Cherry video. Just bad luck, that’s all it is.”
Carnevale also says his team is getting better game by game and will have a really tough test next weekend, when they hose Far-East division leaders McGill, Friday Nov. 19, 7:45 p.m. and Ottawa University, Saturday, Nov. 20, 2 p.m. The Ottawa game will be televised on ONtv.
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