Brodeur backstops Gee-Gees to tie up series at one apiece
(Best-of-three series tied 1-1)
With his father, legendary NHL goaltender Martin, in the crowd watching Friday night, Anthony Brodeur went ahead and earned a shutout in the most important game of the season for the University of Ottawa Gee- Gees men’s hockey team.
Lose and they would have been done, but the Gee-Gees erupted for four goals against Francois Brassard — whose father Marc is pretty famous himself as a sportswriter with Le Droit — and blanked the Carleton Ravens 5-0 at the Minto Sports Complex on the U of O campus.
Now there will be a decisive Game 3 Sunday back at the Carleton Ice House, the scene of the Ravens’ 3-2 overtime win Wednesday.
Cody Drover scored twice for the Gee-Gees, while Quinn O’Brien, Kevin Dominigue and Jonathan Bourcier added a goal each. Brodeur made 30 saves.
“For me it was about getting the win, whatever it took. We didn’t want to end our season and we have a lot more to give. It was just keep the puck out of the net and give us a chance. My team did a good job blocking shots and getting those goals for that cushion.”
After making 43 saves in Game 1 Brassard turned aside another 15 through two periods Friday before giving the net to Justin Nichols, who allowed one goal on six shots.
The Gee- Gees completely dominated the first 25 minutes of the game and opened a 2-0 lead in the process.
O’Brien opened the scoring at 17:37 of the first period with a shot from the slot that Brassard simply missed, marking his first miscue of the series in which he was brilliant up to that point.
The Gee- Gees outshot the Ravens 11-6 in the opening period, but certainly didn’t get the hometown advantage in that stat as they clearly pelted Brassard with a lot more rubber than that.
“I thought the start was pretty even,” Gee-Gees coach Patrick Grandmaitre said.
“We got a big goal by Quinn O’Brien, a couple big saves and a couple of good offensive plays, but that was not a 5-0 game, it just got away from them a little bit. We’re happy, but now it’s time to reset and start thinking about Sunday.”
They continued their dominance through the opening portion of the second period and got a powerplay goal as Drover redirected a shot up and over Brassard at 2:06.
The Ravens then came to life and were applying pressure and got their first power play of the game at 11:54. Jared Steege took an undisciplined tripping penalty right in front of Brodeur with 56 seconds left in the power play.
“I don’t think we can work any harder, we worked really hard, our discipline could be a whole lot netter and getting traffic in front of that goalie has got to be a whole lot better,” Ravens coach Shaun Van Allen said.
Dominique scored at 13:51 on the ensuing four-on-four to give the Gee- Gees a 4-0 lead and, at the point, essentially the game.
The Gee- Gees didn’t stop there as Drover scored his second of the game, and it was one of the prettiest goals you’ll see as he worked his way through a pair of Carleton defenders and beat Brassard over the right shoulder from in close.
All that remained at that point was the formality of the third period, during which Bourcier upped the count to 5-0 as he beat Nichols through the legs at 10:58.